458 
PLINY'S TSTATURAL HISTORY. 
[Book IX, 
wage the warfare in safety. Consequently, every possible 
care is taked by the divers to look out ^ for the approach of 
this enemy. 
(47.) It is the surest sign of safety to see flat-fish, which 
never frequent the spots where these noxious monsters are 
found : and it is for this reason that the divers^^ call them sacred. 
CHAP. 71. FISHES WHICH AEE ENCLOSED IN A STONY SHELL SEA 
ANIMALS WHICH HAVE NO SENSATION OTHEE ANIMALS WHICH 
LIVE IN THE MUD. 
Those animals, however, it must be admitted, which lie en- 
closed in a stony shell, have no sensation whatever — such as 
the oyster, for instance. Many, again, have the same nature 
as vegetables ; such as the holothuria,^^ the pulmones,^^ and 
the sea-stars. Indeed, I may say that there is no land produc- 
Ceehus ETiodigonus, B. xxv. c. 16, states that the divers for sponges 
were in the habit of pouring forth oil at the bottom of the sea, for the 
purpose of increasing the light there ; and Pliny states the same in B. ii. 
0. 106. 
Cuvier says, that the name of " sacred fish" has been given to several 
fish of very dilferent character ; such as the anthias, or aulopias of Aris- 
totle, B. ix. c. 37, the pompilus and the dolphin (Athenseus, B. vii.), be- 
cause it was thought that their presence was a guarantee against the 
vicinity of dangerous fish. The authors, however, that were consulted by 
Pliny, seem to have given this name to the fiat-fish, the Pleuronectes of 
Linnaeus ; and in fact, unprovided as they are with any means of defence, 
their presence is not unlikely to prove, in a very great degree, the absence 
of the voracious class of fishes. 
^® It is singular that Pliny, after his numerous stories as to the sen- 
sitiveness of numerous bivalves, should make this statement in reference 
to the oyster ; for, on the contrary, as Cuvier says, the oyster, in common 
with the other bivalves, is extremely sensitive to the touch. 
Cuvier says, that the difi'erent zoophytes, the sea-star, at least, are 
far from having the life of vegetables only ; for that they are real animals, 
which have the sense of touch, a voluntary power of motion more or less 
complete, and seize and devour their prey. It is not, however, very well 
known, he says, what was the " holothurium" of the ancients. Aristotle, 
Hist. Anim. B, i. c. 1, ranks it, as well as the oyster, among the animals 
which, without being attached to any object, have not the faculty of 
moving ; and in his work, De Part. Anim. B. iv. c. 5, he adds, that the 
holothurium and the pulmo only differ from the sponge in being detached. 
Cuvier is of opinion, however, that they both belong to the halcyones, the 
round kinds of which easily detach themselves from the places upon which 
they have grown. 
60 Pulmo, the sea-lungs." 
Or, as we call it, the star-fish. 
