THE PHYSOPHOKID^;. 119 



but what most excited my curiosity was the continuous action of the fishing-lines, retiring 

 altogether sometimes with the utmost precipitation. All who have witnessed these living 

 colonies withdraw themselves reluctantly from the strange spectacle, where each polyp 

 seems to play the part of the fisherman who throws his line, furnished with baited hooks, 

 withdrawing it when he feels a nibble, and throwing again when he discovers his 

 disappointment." The agalma is described as well armed ; its tendrils have enormous 

 stinging powers. 



One family of the Physophoridae includes the interesting creature known as the " Portu- 

 guese man-of-war/' from a slight resemblance to a small vessel with a sail up; it is also known 

 among sailors as the sea- bladder. The bladder is eleven or twelve inches long, and from one 

 to three broad. Its appearance is glassy and transparent, and of a purply tint. Above the 

 bladder is a crest, limpid and pure as crystal, and veined in purple or violet ; it is the crest 

 which the sailors believe fulfils the office of a sail. " This bladder-like form, with its aerial 

 crest, is only a hydrostatic apparatus, whose office is to lighten the animal and modify its 

 specific gravity." From the bottom of the bladder a crowded mass of organs, most of which 

 take the form of very slender, highly contractile, movable threads, depend ; they are often 

 several feet, and occasionally several yards, long. Their stinging powers are great ; these 

 elegant creatures are terrible antagonists. One French writer says that, " One day, when sail- 

 ing at sea in a small boat, I perceived one of these little galleys, and was curious to see the 

 form of the animal ; but I had scarcely seized it when all its fibres seemed to clasp my hand, 

 covering it as with bird-lime, and scarcely had I felt it in all its freshness (for it is very cold 

 to the touch), when it seemed as if I had plunged my arm up to the shoulder in a cauldron 

 of boiling water. This was accompanied with a pain so strange, that it was only with a violent 

 effort I could restrain myself from crying aloud." Another traveller,* while bathing and 

 swimming in the surf of the Antilles, was attacked by one. " I promptly detached it," says 

 he, " but many of its filaments remained glued to my skin, and the pain I immediately experi- 

 enced was so intense that I nearly fainted." In this case no very serious damage resulted, 

 but during the voyage of the Princess Louise round the world a seaman was nearly killed by 

 one. Fredol, the historian of the expedition, says that one of the officers noticed a magnifi- 

 cent Physalia, which was floating near the ship. " A young sailor leaped naked into the sea 

 to seize the animal. Swimming towards it, he seized it ; the creature surrounded the person 

 of its assailant with its numerous thread-like filaments, which were nearly a yard in length ; 

 the young man, overwhelmed by a feeling of burning pain, cried out for assistance. He had 

 scarcely strength to reach the vessel and get aboard again before the pain and inflammation 

 were so violent that brain fever declared itself, and great fears were entertained for his life." 



* O 



It is a disputed point whether the Physalia is poisonous or not when eaten. It was a com- 

 monly-received idea in the Antilles that they are, and that the negroes sometimes made use of 

 them, after being dried and powdered, to poison both men and animals. The fishermen there 

 believe that fish which have eaten parts of the Physalia become unfit for human food. A 

 French physician, M. Ricord-Madiana, settled in Guadaloupe, made many experiments to 

 attempt the settlement of the question. He found that ants and flies partook of them with 



* Leblond : " Voyage aux Antilles." 



