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CHAPTER XVIII. 

 VENOMS IN THE ANIMAL SERIES (continued). 



3.—BATBACH1ANS. LIZARDS. MAMMALS. 



A. — Batrachians. 



By the ancients the venom of salamanders and toads was dreaded 

 as much as the most terrible poisons. These animals, however, are 

 not very formidable, since they are devoid of inoculatory organs ; 

 their poison-apparatus is localised exclusively in the parotids and 

 the skin. It is represented simply by more or less confluent glands 

 in the form of sacs, secreting a viscid mucus, which has a nauseous 

 odour and is highly toxic', even to animals of large size. 



The salamander belongs to the Order Urodela, which is charac- 

 terised by the persistence of the tail. Its body is heavy and thick- 

 set, and the flanks and the sides of the tail exhibit a series of 

 glandular crypts, which secrete venom. 



" The mucus which flows from the mouth, and resembles milk, 

 eats away human hair," wrote Pliny ; " the spot moistened by it loses 

 its colour, which subsequently returns. Of all venomous animals 

 the salamander is the most terrible ; it is capable of annihilating 

 whole nations by poisoning the vegetation over a vast area. When 

 the salamander climbs a tree all its fruit is poisoned, and those who 

 eat of it die as surely as if they had taken aconite. Moreover, if 

 bread be baked with wood touched by the animal, it is dangerous, 

 and may occasion serious disorders. If the naked foot be defiled 

 with the saliva of this creature, the beard and hair soon fall out. 

 Sextius says that a salamander, preserved in honey, after the 



