APLYSIA. 6 



^^lievre de mer/^ ^^mbriago/^ ^^tete d^me/^ " cLat de 

 mer/'' '^ limace de mer/^ " pichevin/^ " pisse de mer/^ 

 and ^^ pisse-vinaigre/'' the ItaUaus '^ lepre marina '^ and 

 ^'' cesto del mare/^ the Spaniards ^^ liebre de la mar/^ and 

 the inhabitants' of Martinique "baril de vin/^ From 

 time immemorial sailors and fishermen of all countries 

 have given the names of land animals to those of the 

 sea. Wonderful tales used to be told of the more than 

 poisonous qualities of the Aplysia. Pliny, iElian, and 

 especially Aldi'ovandi collected all these absurd notions. 

 One was that if the animal were touched, even with a 

 walking-stick, the danger would be not less than from 

 the look of a basilisk ; another was that it caused bald- 

 ness ; and a third that pregnant women miscarried at 

 the sight of this horrid creature. In those days the 

 science of Natural History consisted rather of such idle 

 gossip than of patient investigation. Zoology, indeed, 

 was not always a safe pm-suit. Apuleius was about to 

 marry a rich widow, named Pudentilla, when her rela- 

 tions (in order to keep her money in the family) accused 

 him before the Proconsul Claudius Maximus on a charge 

 of sorcery and poisoning ; the chief proof consisted in 

 his having employed fishermen to procure for him an 

 Aplysia. He had considerable difficulty in establishing 

 his innocence. Cuvier has satisfactorily shown that the 

 Aplysia is quite harmless, and that it did not deserve 

 the bad character given to it by the ancients ; he says 

 truly that fishermen have always had a fancy to attribute 

 mischievous properties to those marine animals which 

 are of no use as the food of man. I would remark, 

 however, by way of parenthesis, that the Aplysia is not 

 quite inoffensive, as any one may be convinced by han- 

 dling it; the smell is insufferably nauseous. This and 

 its slabby appearance are certainly enough to take away 



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