322 SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS [Sma 



cannot live ; but even on our own coasts a peculiarly venomous 

 species exists. Its scientific name is Cyanea capillata, and it is 

 popularly called the stinger or stanger. The poison threads of 

 this species are apparently interminable, and people are stung 

 by them when at a distance of many yards from the owner. 

 Moreover, the threads sting as freely when separated from the 

 medusa as when attached to it ; so that a single specimen may 

 inflict an enormous amount of pain if it should happen to float 

 among a company of bathers. The effect of the poison varies 

 according to the individual. Some persons care little for it, 

 and suffer scarcely any pain, except a sharp sort of pricking 

 sensation which is unpleasant at the time, but leaves no sort 

 of after effects. Others, who are afflicted with a sensitive 

 skin, not only suffer severe and prolonged pain, but their health 

 is seriously affected, and months afterwards the effects are felt, 

 and the symptoms will recur. This stinger symbolises the 

 slanderer. She trails herself through human society in all lati- 

 tudes ; and wherever she is found she causes pain by her poison. 

 Even when far away her victims suffer through her influence. 

 Those who are not particularly sensitive cannot escape the dis- 

 comfort of her stings ; whilst those who are so, often suffer 

 acutely from them. F. 



The Capacity for Mischief Possessed by Small 



Beings. 



The feeble aphis, with limbs indescribably slender, is so 

 fragile that it may be overturned by a puff of breath. But 

 smallness of bulk is no criterion of inferiority of power ; an 

 apple-tree, several feet, perhaps, in its circumference, spreading 

 its branches over a rood of land, sickens and dies from the 

 puncture of the aphis lanata, a creature so small as to be imper- 

 ceptible on its limbs. Among men we often see a grand and 

 noble character brought to a premature grave owing to the 

 capacity which some of the most contemptible of the human 

 species possess to blast reputations and break hearts. j. 



