CHAPTER XVIL 
VENOMS IN THE ANIMAL SERIES (continued). 
2.—VENOMOUS FISHES. 
THE means of defence in fishes are extremely varied. Some 
species (torpedoes or electric rays, electric eels) destroy their enemies 
by electric discharges ; others are provided with true poison-glands 
and inoculatory organs, usually represented by opercular spines or 
by the fin-rays. The species of the genus Muræna, however, 
possess a poison-apparatus connected with the buccal teeth, as in 
the case of snakes. 
It has been clearly established by Bottard’ that at least three 
very distinct types of venomous fishes exist, according as the venom- 
apparatus 1s :— 
(1) Entirely closed (Synanceia type); (2) half closed (Thalasso- 
phryne type); (8) in more or less direct communication with the 
exterior (Trachinus and Scorpena type). 
The greater part of the following statements has been borrowed 
from the excellent work of the author referred to, from the writings 
of A. Corre,’ the fellowship thesis of Henry Coutière, and the 
magnificent atlas published at St. Petersburg in 1886 by P. Savt- 
schenko, of the Russian Imperial Navy. 
Except in the case of the species of Muræna, the venom of fishes 
1“ Les poissons venimeux,” These Paris, 1889. 
*“ Poissons venimeux et poissons vénéneux,’ Archives de Physiologie, May, 
1872 ; Archives de médecine navale, February, 1865, and January, 1881. 
3 & Poissons venimeux et poissons vénéneux,” These Paris, 1899. 
