LOW LIFE IN THE SEA. 55 



3. The general name of the medusa was applied to 

 this animal on account of the snake-like filaments which 

 it possesses, highly suggestive of the serpent locks of the 

 Greek Medusa, one of the Gorgons ; perhaps, also, from 



The Medusa. 



the danger of contact which all too-curious observers in- 

 cur. The property common to nearly all the jelly-fish — 

 that of a most severe and painful sting — is in some of 

 the medusae a paralyzing power against which the strongest 



