472 ON THE FEMORAL GLAND OF OJiMTUOIUnWCrirS, 



" The male of this wonderful animal is provided with spurs on 

 the hind feet or legs like a cock. The spur is situated over a 

 cyst of venomous 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 them in with such strength, that they could not be withdrawn 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. The 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, besides the external applications of oil and vinegar, to 

 administer 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 extraordinary 

 occurrence induced me to examine the spur of the animal ; and 

 on pressing it down on the leg, the fluid squirted through the 

 tube : but for what purpose Nature has so armed these animals 

 is as yet unknown to me." 



This letter of Jamieson's induced Blainville to examine two 

 specimens which were in the Paris Museum, and in May, 1817, 

 he communicated the result of his observations to the Philomatic 

 Society of Paris.* 



Blainville commented on the similarity Vjetween the spurs of 

 Ornithorhynchus and Cock Birds ; but from their different position 

 and connections in the Platypus, he considered it was neither a 

 spur, a sixth toe, nor even a nail, but an apparatus peculiar to 

 this particular animal. He described the canal of the spur, and a 

 cyst at its base. He suggested that the latter was probably 

 only a receptacle for poison manufactured elsewhere ; but the 



*Bull. Soc. Philomatique, 1817, p. 82. 



