THE APLYSIA, OR SEA-HAEE. 17 



animal. * The operation of the poison was not immediate. 

 " This poison," according to Pliny, " hath no set and prefinite 

 time wherein it killeth any body ;" but the victim lived as 

 many days as the hare had lived, subsequent to its removal from 

 the sea ; and being believed besides to betray itself by the 

 person poisoned exhaling the scent of the snail and some 

 other peculiar symptoms, it was not often resorted to.-f- 



What proportion of truth there is in this account, it is not 

 easy to decide. I am not prepared to reject the whole, as 

 some modern authors have done, who believe that the singular 

 conformation of the Aplysia, for so the animal is now desig- 

 nated by naturalists, and the power it possesses of discharging 

 at pleasure large quantities of a fluid of the richest purple 

 colour, have given rise to the whole tale. Cuvier tells us 

 that the species observed by him at Marseilles exhaled merely 

 a slight acid smell, and the fishermen there knew nothing of 

 any noxious property it had. J Having kept them a long 

 time in confinement, and repeatedly handled them, I can con- 

 firm Montagu's statement, that our British species are equally 

 harmless and inoffensive ; but the question has reference not 

 to these, but to the larger species, which inhabit the Indian 

 ocean or the shores of southern Europe ; and, to pass over 

 the authority of Rondeletius, who, however, details a curious 

 case, which would seem to prove that its virtue to effect 

 abortion is far from being imaginary, the account which 

 Bohadtch gives of the latter verifies to a certain extent the 

 ancient history. He tells us, that the Lernaea|| (Fig. 2) 



* " Cette ridicule accusation etait base'e sur ce fait, qu'on 1'avait vu 

 observer des lievres marins, gros mollusques qui jouaient un grand role dans 

 les operations magiques. Dans sa defense, Apule'e repondit qu'en effet il 

 avait observe des lievres marins, mais seulement dans le but de satisfaire 

 une curiosite qui n'offrait rien de condamnable." Cuvier Hist, des Sc. Nat. 

 i. 287. 



t Holland's Plinie, i. 264, ii. 427. Beckman's Hist, of Inventions, i. 

 82. Bohadtch de Anim. Marin. 49. Cuvier Mem. ix. 2, 3. The symptoms 

 have been enumerated in the following verses, quoted by Aldrovandus, 

 Opera, v. 87 : 



" Post bibitum hoc virus viridis stagnantia fellis 

 Excrementa manent, tenebroso lumina visu 

 Caligant, liquidse abeunt in corpore carnes : 

 Nausea adest, tumet alta cutis, talique calescunt : 

 Subque cavis oculis, roseo fucata rubore 

 Apparet facies, sistensque urina moratur, 

 Quse nunc purpureo, nunc sanguineo esse colore 

 Cernitur ; et quemcunque videt contemnere piscem 

 Assolet aversans, ut queelibet sequoris seger." 

 t Mem. ix. 11. 



Aldrovand. Oper. v. 86. 



The Aplysia leporina of Delle Chiaie, Anim. s. Vert. Nap. i. p. 71. 



C 



