BY C. .1. MARTIN AND FRANK TIDSWELL. 479 



to clean itself with its hind legs. Mr. Spicer thought such a 

 usurpation by the male of feminine privileges would be as singular 

 as the animal's taste in hair oils. 



A Nicols* records having wounded and captured a Platypus 

 which was lively enough to sc?;atch him with its sharp claws, but 

 made no attempt to use its spurs when handled. The native who 

 accompanied him, however, expressed fear of the spur. Nicols 

 thought that the spur and its gland might be "a remnant of 

 conditions of life very different from those under which the 

 animal now exists." He considered that although it might possibly 

 be used in contests with its own kind, " there is no reason for 

 attributing a poisonous character to this weapon." 



Darwin (Descent of Man, 2nd ed. p. 502), when discussing the 

 weapons of offence possessed by the males of various kinds of 

 animals, mentions the spur and gland apparatus, but states that 

 Harting has shown that the secretion is not poisonous. 



In his recent Presidential Address to the Royal Society of 

 iST.H.W., Prof. Anderson Stuartf refers to the cases recorded by 

 Jamieson and Spicer, and gives an account of the effects of the 

 poison on dogs. One of these animals received the wounds whilst 

 retrieving. Their infliction was rapidly followed by great swelling 

 of the face, which was very tender. The dog became sleepy, and 

 refused food. He had no salivation, vomiting, diarrh(iea, tremor, 

 convulsions nor staggering. He ultimately recovered. 



Another Platypus hunter statad that he had lost in this way 

 four valuable dogs of comparatively large size. On one occasion he 

 " saw the Platypus strike, heard the dog whine, saw the wound, 

 and the train of symptoms ending in death." In these cases the 

 most marked constitutional effect was intense drowsiness. 



In summing up on the question, Prof. Anderson Stuart says : — • 

 " We may, I think, conclude that the poison is powerful enough, 

 at all events at certain seasons, but at what seasons the accounts 



* Zoological Notes. London, 18S3. Chap iv. p. 116. 

 t Royal Soc. of N.S.W. Anniversary Address by the President, Prof. 

 T. P. Anderson Stuart, M.D., 1894, 



