According to the persons who examined it on that occasion, and who have seen it since, the echeneïs bears a strong resemblance to a large slug.[9] The various opinions entertained respecting it we have already[10] noticed, when speaking of it in the Natural History of Fishes. There is no doubt, too, that all fish of this kind are possessed of a similar power; witness, for example, the well-known instance of the shells[11] which are still preserved and consecrated in the Temple of Venus at Cnidos, and which, we are bound to believe, once gave such striking evidence of the possession of similar properties. Some of our own authors have given this fish the Latin name of “mora.”[12] It is a singular thing, but among the Greeks we find writers who state that, worn as an amulet, the echeneïs has the property,[13] as already mentioned, of preventing miscarriage, and of reducing procidence of the uterus, and so permitting the fœtus to reach maturity: while others, again, assert that, if it is preserved in salt and worn as an amulet, it will facilitate parturition; a fact to which it is indebted for another name which it bears, “odinolytes.”[14] Be all this as it may, considering this most remarkable fact of a ship being thus stopped in its course, who can entertain a doubt as to the possibility of any manifestation of her power by Nature, or as to the effectual operation of the remedies which she has centred in her spontaneous productions? CHAP. 2.—THE TORPEDO: NINE REMEDIES. And then, besides, even if we had not this illustration by the agency of the echeneïs, would it not have been quite sufficient only to cite the instance of the torpedo,[15] another inhabitant also of the sea, as a manifestation of the mighty powers of Nature? From a considerable distance even, and if only touched with the end of a spear or staff, this fish has the property of benumbing even the most vigorous arm, and of rivetting the feet of the runner, however swift he may be in the race. If, upon considering this fresh illustration, we find ourselves compelled to admit that there is in existence a certain power which, by the very exhalations[16] and, as it were, emanations therefrom, is enabled to affect the members of the human body,[17] what are we not to hope for from the remedial influences which Nature has centred in all animated beings? CHAP. 3.—THE SEA HARE: FIVE REMEDIES.