94 NATURALIST'S CABINET. 



Singular property of the spine. 



relates, that a thief, who had stolen one of these 

 fish, which he took for a plaice, was wounded by 

 its spine, and instantly dropped down dead. The 

 enchantress Circe, it is said, armed her son with 

 a spear, headed with the spine of the sting ray, 

 as the most irresistible weapon she could furnish 

 him with; and he afterwards unintentionally 

 slew with it his father Ulysses. Notwithstanding 

 the dreadful effects attributed to this formidable 

 weapon, the fishermen of Heligoland, according 

 to Schoneveld, entertain no apprehension of it; 

 end Kempfer informs us, that those of Japan 

 consider it the most certain remedy against the 

 bite of a serpent, if rubbed upon the wound ; 

 they, therefore, always carry one about them. 

 But this property is only possessed by such spines 

 as are cut from the animals when alive. Even 

 modern naturalists, (among whom is the cele- 

 brated Linnaeus) think the spine of this fish ve- 

 nomous : Dr. Bloch, however, ventures to differ 

 from them in this opinion, and asserts, that the 

 wound inflicted by the spine of 'the sting ray is 

 not more dangerous than that of any other simi- 

 lar instrument. This spine is employed by the 

 fish, not only as a weapon of defence, but to 

 wound other fish with it, in order the more 

 easily to seize and devour them. According to 

 Pliny, he is enabled by it to make himself formi- 

 dable even to the shark. 



The wound that is inflicted by an animal's tail 

 has, no doubt, something terrible in the idea, 



