]18 SEA-SIDE STUDIES. 



the details are scanty. Owing to his commentators being 

 less accurately informed than he was, they have misunderstood 

 the passage w'herein he speaks of the sea-nettles quitting 

 their rocks in quest of food at night, and have supposed that 

 he alluded to the Medusae. But by uKuXri^ri he indubitably 

 meant the Actiniae as well as the Medusae; and he was right 

 in sa}dng they sometimes quitted the rocks to which they 

 had fixed themselves. Eondelet adopted Aristotle's term of 

 UrticcB marincB, adding to it the epithet of adfixce, to dis- 

 tinguish them from the errant Medusae. Reaumur in 1710 

 began to investigate them more seriously than any of his 

 predecessors had done ; but the Abbd Dicquemare must be 

 counted as the first good authority on the subject. He 

 furnished the most extensive and reliable information, in 

 three papers of the Philosophical Transactions for the years 

 1773, 1775, and 1777. The name of Actinia was adopted 

 by Linnfcus from Patrick Brown, and has smce been 

 universally accepted. The reader will understand, therefore, 

 that Sea Anemone and Actinia are convertible terms, and 

 may be employed indifierently. In 1809, Spix published 

 an account of the anatomy of the Actinia, which was, how- 

 ever, very faulty ; its announcement of the discovery of a 

 nervous system has long been rejected. It was not even 

 accepted by Delia Chiaje, the next writer of authority, whose 

 Memorie suUa storia e notomia degli aniniali invertehrati 

 del regno di Napoli, 1 822-29,* is still quoted by systematic 



* I Lave not seen this book, but I found the magnificent wcn-k, Descrtzione 

 e notomia der/li unimali inverUlrati della Sicilia CiUriore (published in 8 vols, 

 folio ; Naples, 1841-44), on the shelves of Mr Tiiibner in Paternoster Row. It 



