BOOK IX.] History of Nature. 169 



Oysters, have no Sense. Many are of the same Nature as 

 Plants, as the Holothuria, 1 Pulmones, 2 and Stellae (Star- 

 fishes) ; and thus there is nothing that is not bred within the 

 Sea ; as the Creatures which in Summer Time abound within 

 our Inns, and vex us with their active Leap ; as also that 

 which lies close under the Hair of our Heads : for often the 

 Fishermen find a Number of these Skippers 3 settled thick 

 about their Baits as they draw them up. And these are 

 thought to infest the Fishes in their Sleep by Night in the 

 Sea. But some Fishes produce these Creatures within 

 themselves ; among which is reckoned the Chalcis. 4 



CHAPTER XLVIII. 

 Of venomous Sea-fishes. 



NOR is the Sea without deadly Poisons, as in the Lepus, 5 

 which in the Indian Sea is so venomous when touched, that 

 vomiting and breaking down of the Stomach is the Conse- 

 quence. They which are found in our Sea are a shapeless 

 Lump of Flesh, in Colour only resembling the Hare. But in 

 the Indian Seas they are as big as the Pilum, only it is 



1 A molluscous form of the Asteriadae : the Stellae, or Star-fishes, 

 constitute another section of the same family of Asteriadae. Wern. Club. 



2 A species of Botryllus. Wern. Club. 



3 This distant allusion to the parasites of the human body is still 

 maintained in the language of modern fishermen ; who speak of sea-lice 

 and sea-fleas as pestering them in their avocations, by devouring their 

 baits, and sometimes even devouring the flesh of the fish that has swal- 

 lowed the hook, if not immediately drawn up. These voracious creatures, 

 which are different species of the Linnean genus Oniscus, obtain an 

 entrance at the mouth, and devour the internal substance, leaving the 

 skin and scales an empty bag, or filled only by bones. Wern. Club. 



4 A species of Clupea, and probably C. Sardina, Cuv. Wern. Club. 



s Aplysia : a genus of Mollusks, possessing the power of exuding 

 from the skin a fluid of an acrid quality. The A. depilans is found on 

 the British shores. The head and antennae, when stretched out, bear a 

 resemblance in miniature to the same parts in the hare. It is only when 

 alarmed that they contract and become " a shapeless lump of flesh." 

 Wern. Club. 



