(584 ) 
RE RSR RE D a CORES 
———ÀÁ— 
XXXVI. Exrracrs from the Mixure-Book of the Society. 
Mar.18, Reap an Extract of a Letter addressed to the Secre- 
1817. tary from Sir John Jamison, F.L.S., dated at Regentville, 
New South Wales, September 10, 1816, as follows: 
* I cannot avoid relating to you an extraordinary 
peculiarity which I have lately discovered in the Orni- 
thorynchus paradoxus.—The male of this wonderful.ani- 
mal is provided with spurs on the hind feet or legs, 
like a cock. The spur is situated over a cyst of veno- 
mous fluid, and has a tube or cannula up its centre, 
through which the animal can, like a serpent, force the 
“poison when it inflicts its wound. I wounded one with 
small shot; and on my overseer’s taking it out of the 
water, it stuck its spurs into the palm and back of his 
right hand with such force, and retained them in with 
such strength, that they could not be withdrawn until it 
was killed. "Phe hand instantly swelled to a prodigious 
bulk ; and the inflammation having rapidly extended to 
his shoulder, he was in a few minutes threatened with 
locked-jaw, and exhibited all the symptoms of a person 
bitten by a venomous snake. The pain from the first was 
insupportable, and cold sweats and sickness of stomach” 
took place so alarmingly, that I found it necessary, be- 
sides the external application of oil and vinegar, to ad- 
minister large quantities of the volatile alkali with opium, 
which I really think preserved his life. He was obliged 
to keep his bed for several days, and did not recover the 
perfect use of his hand for nine weeks. This unexpected 
and 
