VENOMS. 
PAG Ee. 
CHAPTER I. 
GHNERAL NOTES ON POISONOUS ANIMALS—POISON- 
OUS SNAKES: GENERAL CLASSIFICATION AND 
ANATOMO-PHYSIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS. 
I.—GENERAL NOTES on Poisonous ANIMALS. 
A LARGE number of animals possess special glandular organs 
capable of secreting toxic substances called venoms. 
Sometimes these substances are simply discharged into the 
surrounding medium, and serve to keep off enemies (toad, sala- 
mander) ; sometimes they mingle with the fluids and digestive 
juices, and then play an important part in the nourishment of the 
animal that produces them (snakes) ; in other cases, again, they 
are capable of being inoculated by means of stings or teeth specially 
adapted for this purpose, and then they serve at once as a means 
of attack or defence, and as a digestive ferment (snakes, spiders, 
scorpions, bees). 
An animal is said to be venomous when it possesses the power 
of inoculating its venom. 
Venomous species are met with in almost all the lower zoological 
groups, in the Protozoa, Cœlenterates, Arthropods, Molluscs, and in 
a large number of Vertebrates (fishes, amphibians, and reptiles). 
The reptiles are best endowed in this respect, and it is in this 
class of creatures that we meet with the species most dangerous 
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