144 . JUNE. 



of wounds being produced, limbs being mortified, and 

 even death itself being caused, by accidental or fool- 

 hardy contact with the potent creature. 



Bohadsch has given, on the authority of personal 

 observation, a minutely circumstantial account, which 

 it seems a hyper- scepticism to doubt. When removed 

 from the sea, and placed in a vessel, there exuded a 

 large quantity of a limpid and somewhat mucilaginous 

 fluid, exhaling a sweetish, sickening, peculiar smell : 

 but besides this, and distinct from its purple secretion, 

 the Aplysia excreted also a milky liquor, formed in an 

 internal conglobate gland, which seems to be analo- 

 gous to the kidney of vertebrate animals. As often as 

 he took the Aplysia from the vase of sea-water and 

 placed it on a plate with the view of more narrowly 

 examining its structure, the room was filled with a 

 nauseous odour, compelling his wife and brother to 

 leave the room, lest sickness and vomiting should 

 follow. He himself could scarcely endure it, and dur- 

 ing the examination had repeatedly to go out and 

 breathe a purer air. His hands and cheeks swelled 

 after handling the creature for any length of time, and 

 as often as it ejaculated its milky secretion; but he 

 is uncertain whether the swelling of the face proceeded 

 from the halitus merely, or from his having accidentally 

 touched it with the hand besmeared with the liquid : 



