F0 0T ON THE STINGING PROPERTIES OF THE PHYSALIA. 161 



tressing pain being felt on taking a full respiration as obtains in a case 

 of acute rheumatism. The secondary effects were very severe, continu- 

 ing for nearly three quarters of an hour; the duration of the pain 

 being probably longer in consequence of the time and delay occasioned 

 by removing the exciting and virulent tentacula from the skin, as they 

 adhered to it, by the aid of the stinging capsules, with an annoying 

 degree of tenacity. On the whole being removed, the pain began gra- 

 dually to abate; but during the day a peculiar numbness was felt, ac- 

 companied also by an increased temperatare in the limb upon which 

 the stings had been inflicted. For some hours afterwards the skin dis- 

 played several white elevations, or wheals, on the parts stung, similar 

 to those usually seen resulting from the poison of the stinging nettle. 

 To remove the irritation, at first cold water was applied ; but this, 

 instead of alleviating, increased the evil ; an applicatian of vinegar re- 

 lieved the unpleasant symptoms, and olive oil has produced a similar 

 beneficial effect." Dr. Bennett observed that the irritative power is 

 retained for some weeks after the death of the animal in the vesicles of 

 the cables ; and even linen cloth, which had been used for wiping off 

 the adhering tentacula, when touched, still retained the pungency, 

 although it had lost the power of producing such violent constitutional 

 irritation. 



Sir Hans Sloane (remarkable for having been the first medical practi- 

 tioner advanced to the dignity of a baronetcy) has given a quaint account 

 of his observations upon the Physalia in his large work, entitled " A 

 Voyage to Jamaica," published in 1 707. Sir Hans sailed to the West In- 

 dies in September of 1687, in the character of Physician to the Duke of 

 Albemarle, who had been appointed Governor of Jamaica, and in his 

 diary states, that when in forty-six degrees of northern latitude, he 

 first saw what the seamen call a Caravel, or Portuguese Man- of- War ; 

 " They burn," he says, tl more violently than the species of the North 

 Sea," alluding, no doubt, to the stinging Medusaa of colder waters, several 

 kinds of which are common in the Irish Channel, " and they do suck 

 themselves so close to the skin that they do raise blisters, and cause 

 sometimes St. Anthony's fire." 



There are several species of this Acaleph, though not yet well dis- 

 tinguished from each other, found in the waters of the Mediterranean 

 and Atlantic. The term Physalia (from <pvaa\is, a bladder) was 

 first employed by Lamarck ; and the following account of its structure 

 is taken from Eschscholtz : — " The very large swimming bladder is dis- 

 tended with air, in such a manner that its longest diameter is hori- 

 zontal. In all the species there may be remarked at one end of the 

 bladder a prolongation, also full of air, which is not provided with 

 suckers, or prehensile filaments. In some species this part equals half 

 the entire length of the bladder, while in others it is very short. The 

 opposite end of the bladder, on the other hand, is, in all species, co- 

 vered on one side with suckers, which, in young individuals, are much 

 more imperfect than the others, which lie in the middle of the vesicle. 

 Along the upper surface of the bladder there runs a plaited ridge, 



