CORAL BUILDERS. 227 



pain, followed by torpor, lasting a whole day, which 

 Mr. George Bennett has described as experienced by 

 himself on taking hold of a 'Portuguese man-of-war' 

 (Phy salts pelagica} was produced by the contact of 

 the tentacle?. The late Professor Edward Forbes 

 has graphically depicted the ' prickly torture ' which 

 results to * tender-skinned bathers ' from the touch of 

 the long filamentous tentacles, ' poisonous threads ' 

 of the Cyanea capillata of our own seas, and observes 

 that these amputated weapons, severed from the 

 parent body, sting as fiercely as if their original 

 proprietor itself gave the word of attack. I have 

 been assured by ladies that they have felt a distinct 

 stinging sensation, like that produced by the leaves 

 of the nettle on the tender skin of the fingers, from 

 handling our common * Opelet anemone' (Anthea 

 cereus] ; while, on the other hand, I have myself 

 handled the species scores of times with impunity. 

 And I have elsewhere recorded an instance in which 

 a little fish, swimming about in health and vigour, 

 died in a few minutes with great agony, through the 

 momentary contact of its lip with one of the emitted 

 lasso - cells (acontia) of the * Parasitic anemone ' 

 (Sagartia parasitica). It is worthy of observation 

 that in this case the fish carried away a portion of 

 the lasso-cell (aconttum) sticking to its lip ; the force 

 with which it adhered being so great that the in- 

 tegrity of the tissues yielded first. The lasso 



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