Objections and Rejoinders 



the poison is to act. This is what we learn 

 from the movements of the palpi close to 

 the motionless fangs; they tell us that the 

 Calicurgi are vivisectors of alarming ac- 

 curacy. 



If we accept the hypothesis of a special 

 nerve-centre for the mandibles, the difficulty 

 would be a little less, without detracting 

 from the operator's talent. The sting 

 would then have to reach a barely visible 

 speck, an atom in which we should hardly 

 find room for the point of a needle. This 

 is the difficulty which the various paralysers 

 solve in ordinary practice. Do they actu- 

 ally wound with their dirks the gangHon 

 whose influence is to be done away with? 

 It is possible, but I have tried no test to 

 make sure, the infinitely tiny wound appear- 

 ing to be too difficult to detect with the op- 

 tical instruments at my disposal. Do they 

 confine themselves to lodging their drop of 

 poison on the ganglion, or at all events in 

 its immediate neighbourhood? I do not say 

 no. 



I declare moreover, that, to provoke 

 lightning paralysis, the poison, if it is not 

 deposited inside the mass of nervous sub- 

 stance, must act from somewhere very near. 

 This assertion is merely echoing what the 

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