﻿294 The Philippine Journal of Science i9i4 



There is usually a little trigger-shaped projection of the ecto- 

 derm cell in which the capsule lies. This projection is called the 

 cnidocil, and when touched causes the discharge of the stinging 

 hair which turns out on itself as when one blows out the in- 

 turned finger of a glove. Piercing the skin while only partially 

 everted, it continues the process within the tissues, at the same 

 time discharging the poisonous fluid which it contains. Glaser 

 and Sparrow* found the discharge of nematocysts to be controlled 

 by changes in osmotic pressure. While the amount of the fluid 

 discharged from a single nematocyst is very slight, the nema- 

 tocysts are so numerous in a small area that the aggregate 

 amount of poison discharged into the tissue must be considerable. 

 This fluid has never been analyzed from any of the dangerous 

 medusae, and it would seem that this form which is very com- 

 mon at a certain season of the year in many places in the Islands, 

 particularly in Culion and in Subig Bay, would afford excellent 

 opportunities for study along this line, because of its enormous 

 numbers of localized nematocysts. 



Specimens of this medusa were collected by the Albatross 

 at several points in Luzon and at Masbate and Mindanao. 

 While with the biological survey party, I found them to be plen- 

 tiful on the Sulu Sea side of Palawan and at Culion and 

 Busuanga. The species is apparently widely distributed in the 

 Archipelago, and bathers should be on the lookout for it. The 

 natives in Palawan report numerous severe stings, some of them, 

 particularly in the case of children, resulting in death, and it 

 was notable that after the appearance of the medusa in that 

 region the children were almost never seen in the water. 



Old •"' of the United States Navy and formerly stationed at 

 Canacao, Cavite, has reported several cases of severe poisoning 

 by Scyphomedusas in two of which death occurred. The jellyfish 

 responsible for these cases were probably Dactylometra, although 

 Dr. H. M. Smith thinks they were due to Lobonema smithii 

 Mayer.' I have never seen Lobonema smithii, but I have seen 

 numerous cases of stings by Lobonema mayeri which, as I have 

 said, may prove to be identical with Mayer's L. smithii, the 

 main differences being in the number of radial canals. Further- 

 more, I have experienced these stings myself, and while by no 

 means pleasant they are not dangerous. Catostylus purpurus 

 Mayer and Av/rellia labiata Cham, and Eysen., the only other 



*Joum. Exp. Zool. (1909), 6, 361-382. 



• This Journal, Sec. B (1908), 3, 329. 



'Mayer, Medusae of the World (1910), 3, 690-691. 



