Note 2364 — BOOK IX. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF FISHES.

This is, as Cuvier has remarked, a crustaceous insect of the parasitical class Lernæa, which are monoculous [and form the modern class of the Epizoa]. Gmelin, he says, has called it “Pennatula filosa,” though, in fact, it is not a pennatula [or polyp] at all. As Dalechamps observes, its appearance is very different from that of a scorpion. Penetrating the flesh of the tunny or sword-fish, it almost drives the creature to a state of madness.