,8^. POISONOUS SECRETION OF BATRACHIANS. 187 



Miss Ormerod (19) thus relates a personal experiment with 

 the exudation of the Crested Newt : — " For the sake of exactly 

 ascertaining the sensations (which in the lower animals could only be 

 judged of by their apparent effects), a part of the back and tail of a 

 live Triton were gently pressed between the teeth sufficiently to alarm 

 the animal and cause it to give out its acrid cutaneous exudation. 

 The first effect was a bitter astringent feel in the mouth, with irritation 

 of the upper part of the throat, numbing of the teeth more immediately 

 holding the reptile, and in about a minute from the first touch of the 

 newt a strong flow of clear saliva. This was accompanied by much 

 foam and violent spasmodic action, approaching convulsions, but 

 entirely confined to the mouth itself. The experiment was immediately 

 followed by headache lasting for some hours, general discomfort of 

 the system, and half an hour after by slight shivering fits." 



Contrary to what Rainey (24) and Davy (7) were still inclined to 

 believe as late as 1863, the secretion of Batrachians possesses more 

 than an irritating quality ; it is a very active poison when introduced 

 into the circulation, as has been proved by repeated experiments from 

 the time of Laurenti (17) down to the present day. It is principally 

 with the researches of Gratiolet and Cloez (13, 14), Albini (i), and 

 Vulpian (26, 27) that the study of the subject entered its truly 

 scientific phase ; and experiments have since been pursued by Zalesky 

 (28), Fatio (9), Fornara (11, 12), Calmels (5), Dutartre (8), Phisalix 

 (20, 21, 22), and others. All these experiments have shown the 

 poison of toads, salamanders, and newts to be capable of killing 

 mammals, birds, reptiles, and even fishes, provided, of course, the 

 dose be proportionate to the size of the animal inoculated. It is 

 unnecessary to give here particulars of the experiments, for which the 

 reader is referred to the publications of the authors quoted above ; 

 it will be sufficient to say that small birds and lizards succumb, as a 

 rule, in a few minutes, and guinea pigs, rabbits, and dogs in less than 

 an hour. 



The notion first entertained by Vulpian (26) that Batrachians 

 are proof against their own poison, has been disproved by Claude 

 Bernard, and subsequently by Vulpian himself (27), Capparelli (6), and 

 Phisalix (20). Toads and salamanders inoculated with their own 

 secretion perish ; but this effect is only produced by using a stronger 

 dose than is required for killing individuals of another species. In 

 his elaborate contribution on the poison of the Crested Newt, Cap- 

 parelli (6) states that he succeeded in killing specimens of that Newt 

 by introducing the secretion in the buccal or abdominal cavities ; he 

 also shows that the poison produces very different effects, according 

 to its being introduced into different parts of the organism. 



The poison of Batrachians, unlike that of Snakes, is not a 

 septic, but acts upon the heart and the central nervous system. That 

 of the common toad has been compared, as regards its effects, to 

 Digitalis and Erythrophlceum . For a long time authorities disagreed as 



