226 TOILERS IN THE SEA. 



-covery of these lasso-cells the fatal power has been 

 supposed to be lodged in them. Baker, a century 

 ago, in speaking of the Hydra, suggested that ' there 

 must be something eminently poisonous in its grasp,' 

 and this suspicion received confirmation from the 

 circumstance that the Entomostraca (water-fleas, &c.), 

 which are enveloped in a shelly covering, frequently 

 escape unhurt after having been seized. The stinging 

 power possessed by many Meduscz, which is suffi- 

 ciently intense to be formidable even to man, has 

 been reasonably attributed to the same organs, which 

 the microscope shows to be accumulated by millions 

 in their tissues." l This author goes on to say that, 

 although he cannot reduce this presumption to actual 

 certainty, he made some experiments which leave no 

 reasonable doubt on the subject. He then proceeds 

 to record several examples, which seemed to prove 

 that the slightest contact with the proper organs of 

 the anemone was sufficient to provoke the discharge 

 of the lasso-cells, and that even the densest condition 

 -of the human skin offered no impediment to the 

 penetration of the threads. And he adds, " As to 

 the injection of a poison, it is indubitable that pain, 

 and in some cases death, ensues, even to vertebrate 

 animals, from momentary contact with the capsul- 

 iferous organs of the zoophytes. The very severe 



1 Gosse, " Sea-Anemones and Corals," p. xxxvii. 



