Wellington Philosophical Society. 557 



Mr. Travers said that, common as the spider was, cases of its bite 

 were rare. He had only met with one instance. This was at Massacre 

 Bay, where a man was bitten in the thigh. No skilled assistance was 

 available. Though the results were very serious for a time, the man 

 recovered. 



Mr. Mestayer said there was a New South Wales spider much 

 resembling the katipo, though the red mark was differently situated. 

 Its bite was said to be fatal. The Curator of the Museum, who had live 

 specimens in confinement, allowed them to run over his hand, but could 

 not allow them to do it long, as, though they did not bite, their mere con- 

 tact with the skin caused a numbness of the nerves. 



Sir James Hector said the same thing had been observed of the 

 katipo. 



Dr. Fyffe said the knee-jerks and reflexions of the arm showed the 

 specific effect of the poison on the nerve extremities, producing peripheral 

 neuritis, and the numbness referred to was a confirmation. Ammonia, 

 unless applied at once, he thought, would be of little or no use. At one 

 time strychnine had great repute as an antidote to snake-bite, but, as 

 a matter of fact, it had no such property. Its use in suoh cases was 

 simply its ordinary use in medicine — to keep up the action of the heart. 



5. "Notes on Salmonidce in New Zealand," by A. J. 

 Rutherfurd, President of the Wellington Acclimatisation 

 Society. (Transactions, p. 240.) 



Sir James Hector showed some specimens of Hydridce, 

 with other sea-snakes from various parts of the world. 



The sea-snakes, he explained, inhabited the Pacific Ocean and 

 tropioal seas, but had been captured as far south in New Zealand as 

 Catlin's River. It was singular, too, that while none of the land-serpents 

 of the Paoific islands were poisonous — those, for instance, that were 

 sometimes found in the bunches of island bananas were perfectly harm- 

 less — the sea-serpents, of which there were some seventy species, were, 

 without exception, fanged, and provided with glands that secreted a 

 virulent poison. The species belonging to New Zealand were all yellow- 

 banded ; all the Fijian species were black-bauded, and those of Australia 

 grey-banded. They were all characterized by the flattened tails, which 

 they used as steering-oars. They were often found asleep on the surface 

 of the water, but to eject the air from their lungs had to turn on their 

 baoks. In this state they were easily and safely captured, being power- 

 less to strike. 



Mr. Travers said they were exceedingly abundant in the coral islands. 

 They were commonly eaten by the natives, who took the precaution of 

 cutting off the head as soon as the animal was captured. He related the 

 case of a shipwrecked crew on an atoll who lived on these sea-snakes for 

 six weeks, having saved no provisions from the wreck, exoept a little 

 farinaceous food. They called them " eels," and said they were very 

 good eating. Like the natives, however, they carefully cut off the 

 heads. 



The following exhibits were on view : — 



A small Holothurian from Lyall Bay, cast up in the late 

 gale. 



A sea-slug, or the beche-de-mer of the Pacific islands. 



A Phylosoma, or glass-crab — a curious and much-discussed 

 Crustacean, of which eight species had been described, and 

 which now turn out to be larvae of crayfish. 



Two owls — the smallest and largest species known. 



