[16] Ajasson remarks that it was owing probably to this opinion that it was formerly the belief, that by holding the breath a person could render himself proof against the shock of the torpedo; a precaution recommended by Kæmpfer, in his “Amenitates Exoticæ,” p. 514. Ed. 1712.
[17] “Quâdam aurâ sui corporis adficiat membra” seems a preferable reading to “Quâdam aurâ corporis sui adficiat membra,” as given by the Bamberg MS., and adopted by Sillig.
[18] See B. ix. c. 72, and the Note.
[19] A fabulous story, Ajasson remarks, but one that was commonly believed in the 16th and 17th centuries. Gessner, however, a conscientious enquirer into the mysteries of Nature, asserts (de Aquatilibus, p. 563) that, to his own knowledge, the sight of this fish was productive of the symptoms here mentioned. Beckmann reckons the Aplysia depilans (with which the Sea-hare of the ancients is identified) in the number of the animal poisons, and remarks that (as we find stated by Cœlius Rhodiginus, B. xxvi. c. 30) the Emperor Titus was dispatched by the agency of this poison, administered to him by the direction of his brother Domitian. Hist. Inv. vol. I. p. 51. Bohn’s Ed.
[20] Athenæus says, B. viii., that the Scarus pursues it and devours it.
[21] “Quibus impactus est.” A curious expression; if indeed it is the correct reading.
[22] See B. ix. c. 72.
[23] Mituli. See B. ix. c. 74.
[24] “Cetos.”
[25] Ajasson remarks, in confutation of this story, that there are few rivers in Arabia of such a breadth.