PHYSOPHORID&. 145 
“ During the first voyage of the Princess Louise round the world,” 
to quote Frédol, ‘“‘Meyen remarked a magnificent Physalia, which 
passed near the ship. A young sailor leaped naked into the sea, to 
seize the animal. Swimming towards it, he seized it; the creature 
surrounded the person of its assailant with its numerous thread-like 
filaments, which were nearly a yard in length ; the young man, over- 
whelmed by a feeling of burning pain, cried out for assistance. He 
had scarcely strength to reach the vessel and get aboard again, before 
the pain and inflammation were so violent that brain fever declared 
itself, and great fears were entertained for his life.” 
The question has been much agitated, without being positively 
resolved, whether the Physalia are poisonous or not: if they can kill 
or make sick the man or animal which swallows them. Listen to the 
opinions of M. Ricord-Madiana, a physician of Guadaloupe, who 
made direct experiments with a view to settling the question. 
“‘ Many inhabitants of the Antilles,” he says, “say that the ‘ galleys ; 
are poisonous, and that the negroes make use of them, after being 
dried and powdered, to poison both men and animals. The fisher- 
men of the islands also believe that fish which have swallowed them 
become deleterious, and poison those that eat them, a prejudice 
which has been adopted by many travellers, and has even found its 
way into scientific books. We can state as the result of direct 
experiment, that though the ‘galley,’ will burn the ignorant hand 
which is touched by its tentacles, when dried in the sun and pul- 
verised it becomes mere grains of dead matter, producing no effect 
whatever upon the animal economy.” 
“Let us report our own experiments,” continues M. Ricord- 
Madiana. 
“J. Thad placed a ‘galley’ in the sun, in order to dry and 
pulverise it. A nest of ants were there, who devoured the whole of 
it. Now, many persons in the islands think that these insects will 
not touch venomous fishes. 
“JI. Another ‘galley,’ which I had left on the table in my 
laboratory, was attacked by a number of great flies, who deposited 
their eggs there ; these were duly hatched, and the larva fed on the 
decomposed zoophyte. 
“JIT, On the r2th of July, 1823, I saw on the sands in the bay 
between St. Mary and La Goyave, at Guadaloupe, many Physalia 
recently cast ashore. Having a dog with me, with the assistance of 
my servant, I made him swallow the freshest of them, with all its 
filiform tentacles, pushing it down his throat, while my servant held 
his mouth open; five minutes after, the dog exhibited symptoms of 
LK 
