60 THE AQUARIAN NATURALIST. 



splendour. A single Medusa squeezed into twenty- 

 seven ounces of cow's milk rendered it so luminous, 

 that it was possible by the light which it emitted to 

 read a letter at the distance of three feet from the 

 glass containing the resplendent mixture. Even the 

 living animal will communicate to the fluid in which 

 it is plunged its phosphorescent property, and with 

 much more brilliancy if placed in fresh water instead 

 of salt. 



Such are the wonderful attributes conferred upon 

 these humble jelly-fishes, attributes so inexplicable, 

 that the most learned physiologists are at a loss to 

 explain the manner in which they are exercised. The 

 body of a Medusa, when submitted to chemical ana- 

 lysis, is found to consist almost entirely of sea- water : 

 a specimen weighing four or five pounds, when the 

 fluid part of its substance has been allowed to drain 

 away, leaves a mere film of solid substance, the weight 

 of which is not as many grains ; and yet the water of 

 the ocean, thus imprisoned in a cobweb, we find 

 moulded into forms of exquisite beauty endowed with 

 sense and motion able to seize, to vanquish, and to 

 swallow prey to glow with phosphorescent light, and 

 lastly, to perpetuate their race by means as extra- 

 ordinary as any other circumstances connected with 

 their strange history. 



In Mr. Patterson's very pleasing ' Introduction to 

 Zoology/ we find the following practical observations 

 upon this subject : 



"Our admiration for the various functions per- 

 formed by the Acalephse is much increased when we 

 reflect upon the extremely small quantity of solid 



