294 VENOMS 
and Tropical Pacific, is red and brown, obliquely striped with 
white and brown; a third species, Scorpæna porcus (Scorpène 
truie), of smaller size, is met with in the Mediterranean. 
The venom of the latter has been studied by A. Briot,’ who 
sectioned the dorsal and opercular spines, and macerated them 
either in physiological saline solution, or in glycerine; he then 
tested the toxicity of these macerations on certain animals— 
frogs, rabbits, and rats. 
Fig. 104.—Scorpena diabolus (Indian and Pacific Oceans). (After Savtschenko.) 
The frogs alone exhibited, as the result of subcutaneous injec- 
tion into a limb, slight transient paralysis. No effect was found 
to be produced by the venom when injected intravenously into 
the rabbit, or subcutaneously into the rat. 
The poison-apparatus of Scorpena is situated in the spiny rays 
of the dorsal and anal fins. These rays are enveloped in the inter- 
radial membrane, which forms a sheath for them, and are scored 
with a double cannelure. At the bottom of these grooves are the 
! Comptes rendus de la Société de Biologie, 1904, p. 666. 
