1888.] POISON-ORGANS OF TRACHINUS. 365 



giving rise to permanent stiffening of the part. In other cases, 

 instead of a slough of this kind being produced, intense inflam- 

 mation of the finger, hand, and even forearm may follow, the lym- 

 phatic vessels becoming inflamed up to the arm-pit, the glands of 

 which become enlarged and painful. Purulent matter is also often 

 formed amongst the tissues, and the effects of the poison will some- 

 times be felt for from three to five months in severe cases. 



Day (9) states that the swelling usually subsides in about 12 hours, 

 but mentions one case in which a sailor was incapacitated from work 

 for many weeks, and refers to Schmidt (17) as giving further details 

 concerning the effects of the virus. 



Mention is also made of the physiological aspect of the question 

 in the paragraph already referred to by Wiedersheim (20), where it is 

 stated that " Die Wirkung des Giftes, selbst auf grossere Thiere, ist 

 cine starke. Es afficirt das centrale Nervensystem und das Herz 

 (Convulsionen, Starrkrampf, Paralyse)." 



Additional evidence as to the effects produced by the sting of the 

 Weever is given in many of the works already quoted, but much 

 of this, like the accounts one hears from fishermen themselves, is 

 not sufficiently authenticated to be of much value. Dr. Day states 

 (9) that " surgeons have found that olive-oil, to which a little opium 

 has been added, is most efficacious as a cure." 



T. vipera is said to be much more venomous than T. draco ; but 

 this can probably be explained by the fact that the former has had 

 more attention directed to it, owing to its habit of burying itself in 

 the sand, when it is liable to be trodden upon by bathers ; whereas 

 in the case of the Greater Weever the cases of poisoning are mostly 

 confined to fishermen who have incautiously handled the fish when 

 it has been brought up in the trawl. 



LIST OF WORKS REFERRED TO. 



1. ALLMAN, G. J. On the Stinging-properties of the Lesser 



Weever (Trachinus vipera). Annals of Nat. Hist. vol. vi. 

 1841, p. 161. 



2. BLEEKER. Atlas Ichthyol. ii. Silur. 



-3. BYERLEY. Proc. Literary and Philosoph. Soc. of Liverpool, 

 No. 5, 1849, p. 156. 



4. CANESTRINI. Compendio di Zool. ed Anat. Comp. i. 1869, 



p. 307. 



5. COUCH. British Fishes. Vol. ii. London, 1877, p. 45. 



6. CUVIER. Hist. Nat. des Poissons, t. iii. p. 184. 



7. CUVIER. Regne Animal. Paris, 1877. 



8. CUVIER. Animal Kingdom (transl. by Carpenter and West- 



wood, London, 1854). 



9. DAY, F. The Fishes of Great Britain and Ireland. London, 



1880-1884, vol. i. pp. 78-82. 



10. JARPINE, SIR WM. Naturalist's Library. Vol. xxxvi. British 

 Fishes, part i. p. 137. 



