276 TRANSACTIONS OF SOCIETIES. 



quietude, the animal shows muscular tremors, usually beginning 

 near the region bitten. 



These tremors rapidly become general and increase both in 

 their rate and intensity, until the whole animal is shaken by a 

 rapid series of muscular contractions from head to foot. 



These contractions gradually become weaker and less fre- 

 quent until the animal falls over on its side, and, after occasional 

 twitching, death supervenes. 



I have been able to observe that these muscular contractions 

 begin at a. period when the animal is perfectly conscious of its 

 surroundings, but during the course of these spasms the animal 

 appears to lose consciousness. 



It was very difficult to induce schaap.->tekers to bite larger 

 animals, but in a few cases this was successfully performed. 



Of two dogs, bitten by T. trit&niatus, one showed a local 

 swelling with lameness, but the other showed no symptoms. 



One sheep, bitten by T. rhombeatus, showed serious illness, 

 and died about forty minutes after the bite. 



There was a local swelling producing some lameness and 

 hurried respiration, but the most striking feature was most 

 profuse vomiting and prolonged and violent retching. 



As this is the only fatal case recorded in a sheep, I do not 

 bring it forward as a proof of the ability of the schaapsteker to 

 inflict a bite fatal to sheep ; this question must be settled by further 

 experimentation. 



In conclusion, I must record negative results in the con- 

 siderable number of experiments which have been performed with 

 Heptodira hotamboeia, the subjects chosen being rabbits and 

 guinea-pigs. 



Four similar experiments with Psammophis fur cat us, and 

 one experiment (on a guinea-pig) with Tarbophis semianmtlatus, 

 also gave negative results. 



TRANSACTIONS OF SOCIETIES. 



South African Institution of Engineers. — Saturday, January nth: 

 Mr. E. Farrar in the chair. — " The equipment and operation of a whaling 

 station " : W. Pile. A description of the works of the Premier Whaling 

 Co.'s Station at Delagoa Bay, where whales up to 100 tons in weight are 

 dealt with on a slipway 18 feet wide, of unusually heavy construction. 

 The station comprises flensing platform, digester house, bluhber house, 

 boiler house, oil refinery, guano factory, guano store, cooperage, set-pot 

 house, workshops, storage tanks, settling tanks, and drains to sea. All 

 the buildings, except the quarters, are of steel structure, with concrete floors, 

 and there is a concrete sea wall to reclaim certain areas and to provide 

 storage for casks and drums ready for shipment. The factory is situated 

 on an island six miles from the mainland, and is held to be one of the 

 most up to date of its kind in the world. 



Saturday. February 8th : Mr. J. A. Yule, President, in the chair. — 

 " Notes on a bituminous producer gas engine plant " : J. R. Cowell. 

 Particulars were given regarding a suction gas plant which had been 

 working in the Waterberg District on Transvaal bituminous coal. The 

 plant had been designed with special reference to the conditions under 

 which it was to work, viz., continuous running, in a semi-tropical climate. 



