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Nachdruck verboten. 



Note on the Poison-organs of Trachinus. 



By Prof. W. Newton Paekee, Cardiff. 



I am much indebted to Professor Chievitz for calling my attention 

 to Schmidt's detailed account of the structure of the poison-organs 

 in Trachinus draco (see Anat. Anz. p. 787), which, much to my regret, 

 I had been quite unable to obtain. In my note in the Anat. Anz. 

 (No. 16), as well as in a fuller paper on the same subject in which 

 the organs of T. vipera are figured (Proc. Zool. Soc, Lond., 1888, 

 p. 359), I refered to Schmidt's work, on the authority of Day (The 

 Fishes of Gt. Britain and Ireland, London, 1880 — 84, Vol. 1): but 

 I was not aware that the minute structure of these organs, as well 

 as the effects of the poison, had been described by him, nor could I 

 obtain any information on this subject from several eminent autho- 

 rities whom I consulted. Moreover, I might mention that even as re- 

 cently as 1885, a Norwegian observer, Tybring, was apparently even 

 more in the dark than I was, for he does not seem to have been 

 aware of Schmidt's paper at all (see Norsk Fiskeritidende, Oct. 1885 ; 

 translated by Hrm. Jacobson in Bull. U. S. Fish Com., Vol. 6, 1886). 



My observations as regard the histological structure of the 

 glands refer to T. vipera, and possibly there may be some differences 

 between the two species in this respect. At any rate I have not 

 succeeded in distinguishing a marked difference between the secretory 

 and supporting cells such as Schmidt has described in T. draco. The 

 smaller cells which I referred to in my paper read before the Zool. 

 Soc. as being present round the edges of the opercular gland, and 

 which I suggested to be immature, may possibly correspond to the te- 

 gumentary supporting cells of Schmidt: — but I cannot speak de- 

 finitely on this point without comparing his figures and description 

 with my own. 



