LIBER IX · CAPUT 60
SEA-STARS
Latine · Mayhoff 1906
Praeter haec claros sapientia auctores video mirari stellam in mari. ea figura est, parva admodum caro intus, extra duriore callo. huic tam igneum fervorem esse tradunt, ut omnia in mari contacta adurat, omnem cibum statim peragat. quibus sit hoc cognitum experimentis haut facile dixerim, multoque memorabilius duxerim id cuius experiendi cotidie occasio est.
English · Bostock & Riley 1855–57
In addition to what I have already stated, I find that authors, distinguished for their wisdom, express surprise at finding a star in the sea—for such, in fact, is the form of the animal, which has but very little flesh within, and nothing but a hard skin without. It is said that in this fish there is such a fiery heat, that it scorches everything it meets with in the sea, and instantaneously digests its food. By what experiments all this came to be known, I cannot so easily say; but I am about to make mention of one fact which is more remarkable still, and which we have the opportunity of testing by every day’s experience.