A STRANGE Fisti.—A friend and myself were bathing one morning,
as we had done before, and determined to swim out and rest on a certain rock. He generally took the lead ; and while following, I was suddenly struck as by an electric shock. I then discovered that I had swam on a gelatinous substance, about three feet in diameter, which proved to be a fish surrounded by stings. In a moment it covered or enwrapped me, so that every part of my body was stung ; and I could only disengage myself by tearing the animal nom me piecemeal, at the peril of my bands, which were just as if I had poured vitriol upon them. With great difficulty I swam back towards the shore; but when I reached the machine, I had not strength enough to dress; and was afterwards led home be- tween two persons. A medical friend ordered an application of oil and vinegar. Intense agony, which I can compare to nothing but the being stung by thou- sands of wasps, continued for about eight hours; and had it not terminated then, I must soon have sunk beneath the torture. As soon as the pain from the sur- face of the body was mitigated, I felt an internal soreness, was unable to eat for two days, and inflammation of the throat continued for a fortnight. Several of these creatures are seen on the sands left by the tide, for about a month in the year ; and I observed that no horse would tread on one, nor would children touch it except with a stick ; but though the inhabitants of Porto-Bello bad heard of persons being slightly stung, the oldest of them had never met with a case parallel to tam— Wilderspin's Early Discipline.
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