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XXXVI. Extracts /roOT the Minute-Book of the Society. 



JWa?-. 18, Read an Extract of a Letter addressed to the Secre- 

 1817. tary from Sir John Jamison, F.L.S., dated at Regentville, 

 New South Wales, September 10, 1816, as follows : 



" I cannot avoid relating to you an extraordinary 

 peculiarity which I have lately discovered in the Orni- 

 thorynchus paradoxus. — The male of this wonderful ani- 

 mal is provided with spurs on the hind feet or legs, 

 like a cock. The spur is situated over a cyst of veno- 

 mous fluid, and has a tube or cannula up its centre, 

 through which the animal can, like a serpent, force the 

 poison when it inflicts its Avound. I wounded one with 

 small shot; and on my overseer's taking it out of the 

 water, it stuck its spurs into the palm and back of his 

 right hand with such force, and retained them in with 

 such strength, that they could not be withdrawn until it 

 was killed. The hand instantly swelled to a prodigious 

 bulk; and the inflammation having rapidly extended to 

 his shoulder, he was in a few minutes threatened with 

 locked-jaw, and exhibited all the symptoms of a person 

 bitten by a venomous snake. The pain from the first was 

 insupportable, and cold sweats and sickness of stomach 

 took place so alarmingly, that I found it necessary, be- 

 sides the external application of oil and vinegar, to ad- 

 minister large quantities of the volatile alkali with opium, 

 which I really think preserved his life. He was obliged 

 to keep his bed for several days, and did not recover the 

 perfect use of his hand for nine weeks. This unexpected 



and 



