294 



VENOMS 



and Tropical Pacific, is red and brown, obliquely striped with 

 white and brown ; a third species, Scorpcena porcus {Scorphie 

 truie), of smaller size, is met with in the Mediterranean. 

 The venom of the latter has been studied by A. Briot,^ who 

 sectioned the dorsal and opercular spines, and macerated them 

 either in physiological saline solution, or in glycerine ; he then 

 tested the toxicity of these macerations on certain animals — 

 frogs, rabbits, and rats. 



Fig. 104. — ScorpcEna diaholiis (Indian and Pacific Oceans). (After Savtschenko.) 



The frogs alone exhibited, as the result of subcutaneous injec- 

 tion into a limb, slight transient paralysis. No effect was found 

 to be produced by the venom when injected intravenously into 

 the rabbit, or subcutaneously into the rat. 



The poison-apparatus of Scorpcena is situated in the spiny rays 

 of the dorsal and anal fins. These rays are enveloped in the inter- 

 radial membrane, which forms a sheath for them, and are scored 

 with a double cannelure. At the bottom of these grooves are the 



Comptes rendus de la Societe de Biologie, 1904, p. 666. 



