[Illustration: AGALMA RUBRA (THREE-FIFTHS NATURAL SIZE).]
One family of the Physophoridæ includes the interesting creature known as the "Portuguese man-of-war," from a slight resemblance to a small vessel with a sail up; it is also known among sailors as the sea-bladder. The bladder is eleven or twelve inches long, and from one to three broad. Its appearance is glassy and transparent, and of a purply tint. Above the bladder is a crest, limpid and pure as crystal, and veined in purple or violet; it is the crest which the sailors believe fulfils the office of a sail. "This bladder-like form, with its aërial crest, is only a hydrostatic apparatus, whose office is to lighten the animal and modify its specific gravity." From the bottom of the bladder a crowded mass of organs, most of which take the form of very slender, highly contractile, movable threads, depend; they are often several feet, and occasionally several yards, long. Their stinging powers are great; these elegant creatures are terrible antagonists. One French writer says that, "One day, when sailing at sea in a small boat, I perceived one of these little galleys, and was curious to see the form of the animal; but I had scarcely seized it when all its fibres seemed to clasp my hand, covering it as with bird-lime, and scarcely had I felt it in all its freshness (for it is very cold to the touch), when it seemed as if I had plunged my arm up to the shoulder in a cauldron of boiling water. This was accompanied with a pain so strange, that it was only with a violent effort I could restrain myself from crying aloud." Another traveller,(32) while bathing and swimming in the surf of the Antilles, was attacked by one. "I promptly detached it," says he, "but many of its filaments remained glued to my skin, and the pain I immediately experienced was so intense that I nearly fainted." In this case no very serious damage resulted, but during the voyage of the _Princess Louise_ round the world a seaman was nearly killed by one. Frédol, the historian of the expedition, says that one of the officers noticed a magnificent Physalia, which was floating 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, overwhelmed 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." It is a disputed point whether the Physalia is poisonous or not when eaten. It was a commonly-received idea in the Antilles that they are, and that the negroes sometimes made use of them, after being dried and powdered, to poison both men and animals. The fishermen there believe that fish which have eaten parts of the Physalia become unfit for human food. A French physician, M. Ricord-Madiana, settled in Guadaloupe, made many experiments to attempt the settlement of the question. He found that ants and flies partook of them with impunity; a dog, a puppy, and a fowl, swallowed parts of them nearly with impunity, the first named only seeming to have severely felt the sting in his mouth, but recovering perfectly soon after. The ardent experimentalist next ate, and caused his servant to eat, the chicken which had fed on Physalia, and no inconvenience followed; subsequently he ate twenty-five grains of the dried and powdered animal in a little bouillon, and he was unharmed. Yet there is some evidence on the other side which would indicate that on occasions, at least, it is poisonous.
