Page:Natural History, Mollusca.djvu/156

 some of it to the chin, some hairs fell from the part.

For myself, however, I can state, that I have freely handled many specimens of A. hybrida, both young and adult, when newly taken out of the water, without perceiving the least unpleasant sensation, either of feeling or smell.

SEA-HARE.

Among the ancient Romans, the Sea-hare was esteemed highly venomous, and it certainly formed one ingredient in the poisonous draughts that were used in the corrupt ages of the empire for the vile purpose of assassination. Locusta used it to destroy such as were inimical to Nero; it entered into the fatal potion which she prepared for the tyrant himself, and which he had not resolution to swallow; and Domitian was accused of having given it to his brother Titus. To search after the Sea-hare was to render one's self suspected; and