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ing painful bounds, some few attributing them merely to their 

 mechanical effect, but by far the more numerous believing that 

 they are venomous. With this view of the case the Hoylake 

 fishermen, I know, cordially concur, and most of them would 

 hold up their hands in astonishment— in some instances crip- 

 pled by the effects of their wounds— if the opposite opinion 

 were seriously advanced. So frequently had I been consulted 

 where serious consequences had followed punctures, that I was 

 soon induced to take the same view of the case, and to form 

 many conjectures as to the cause, before microscopic observa- 

 tion revealed what seems to be a special organ destined for the 

 purpose of secreting a poisonous fluid. Since I had the 

 honour of introducing the subject to the society, my attention 

 has been called to a paper by Mr. Allman, published in the 

 5th vol. of "The Annals and Magazine of Natural History/' 

 where a correct and classical account is given of this animal. 

 The author gives an exceUent description of the grooves in 

 the spines, to be hereafter mentioned, and throws out two 

 conjectures as to the cause of the pain after punctures; one 

 being that a glandular apparatus may possibly exist for the 

 secretion of a poison, and the other that the secretion from 

 the sheath of the spine may be peculiarly acrid, but he does 

 not appear to have demonstrated the existence of either. 



As I intend my remarks to bear more upon the poisonous 

 properties of the animal than upon its general natural history, 

 I shall content myself with referring you to standard works 

 upon Ichthyology for such detads ; merely stating that it belongs 

 to the class of bony fishes of the order Acanthopterygii. It is 

 one of the Percidse, or perch family, and belongs to that divi- 

 sion of it called Jugulares. The generic name is "Trachinus," 

 of which there are only two species round the British coast : 

 one the "Trachinus Major," which, as far as I know, does 

 not exist in this neighbourhood, though the fishermen do, 

 upon very rare occasions, meet with specimens of 12 or 14 

 inches in length, which is the ordinary size of the larger spe- 



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