Chap. 68.] 
THE SEA- NETTLE. 
453 
to the land insect which we call a centipede, if it chances to 
swallow a hook, will vomit forth all its intestines, until it has 
disengaged itself, after which it will suck them in again. The 
sea-fox too, when exposed to a similar peril, goes on 
swallowing the line until it meets with a weak part of it, 
and then with its teeth snaps it asunder with, the greatest ease. 
The fish called the glanis^^ is more cautious ; it bites at the 
hooks from behind, and does not swallow them, but only strips 
them of the bait. 
(44.) The sea -ram commits its ravages just like a wary 
robber ; at one time it will lurk in the shadow of some large 
vessel that is lying out at sea, and wait for any one who may 
be tempted to swim ; while at another, it will raise its head 
from the surface of the water, survey the fishermen's boats, 
and then slily swim towards them and sink them. 
CHAP. 68. (45.) BODIES WHICH HAVE A THIED NATURE, THAT 
OF THE ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE COMBINED THE SEA-NETTLE. 
Indeed, for my own part, I am strongly of opinion that there 
is sense existing in those bodies which have the nature^* of 
neither animals nor vegetables, but a third which partakes of 
them both. : — sea- nettles and sponges, I mean. The sea-nettle 
wanders to and fro by night, and at night changes its locality. 
These creatures are by nature a sort of fleshy branch,^^ and are 
nurtured upon flesh. They have the power of producing an 
is in reality of the class of worms that have red blood, or annelides, such, 
for instance, as the Nereides of larger size. These having on the sides ten- 
tacles, which bear a strong resemblance to feet, and sharp jaws, might, he 
says, be very easily taken for scolopendrae. They have also a fleshy trunk, 
often very voluminous, and so flexible that it can be extended or withdrawn, 
according to the necessities of the animal. It is this trunk, Cuvier thinks, 
that gave occasion to the story that it could disgorge its entrails, and then 
swallow them again. 
31 This fish, Cuvier says, was doubtless a species of squalus ; which have 
the power, in consequence of the sharpness of their saw-like teeth, of cutting 
a line with the greatest ease. It is mentioned by Aristotle, B. ix. c. 52 ; 
iElian, Var. Hist. B. i. c. 43 ; and Oppian, Halieut. B. iii. 1. 144. 
22 The fish that has been previously mentioned in c. 17 of this Book, 
under the name of silurus. 
33 " Ai-ies." The Delphinus orca of Linnaeus. See c. 4 of the present 
Book. 34 'j'jjg zoophytes, or the zoodendra. 
35 The wandering urticae, or sea-nettles, are the Medusae of Linnaeus ; 
the stationary nettle is the Actinia of the same naturalist. 
36 "Carnosae frondis his natura." 
