254 OCTOBER. 



is retained for some weeks after the death of the animal 

 in the vesicles of the cables ; and even linen cloth which 

 had been used for wiping off the adhering tentacles, 

 when touched, still retained the pungency, although it 

 had lost the power of producing such violent constitu- 

 tional irritation." 1 



Among the tentacles there are seen many depending 

 organs, which take somewhat the shape of a claret- 

 bottle, with the mouth a little expanded. These are 

 highly moveable, turning and bending themselves in 

 various directions. They are termed polypites, and are 

 the mouths and stomachs of the animal : taking-in and 

 digesting food, much as the protrusile lips of an Anemone 

 do. Mr. Bennett describes the PJiysalia as seizing and 

 benumbing small fishes by means of the tentacles, which 

 are alternately contracted to half-an-inch, and then shot 

 out with amazing velocity to a length of several feet, 

 and which drag the helpless and entangled prey to the 

 sucker-like mouths, the stomach- cavities of which were 

 filled while he looked-on, with atoms of the flesh 

 absorbed. 



Dr. Wallich thinks Mr. Bennett must have mistaken 

 what he saw ; because he has observed that in a great 

 number of cases the Physalia is accompanied by small 

 fishes, which play around and among the depending 



1 Gatherings of a Naturalist, p. 7. 



