CHAPTER XHI 

 POISONOUS ANIMALS 



NATURE has bestowed upon animals various 

 means of defence and offence, but by far 

 the most remarkable is the power that some of them 

 have to secrete a poison by means of which they can 

 repel, wound, and even kill other living creatures. 

 The poison of certain species is very deadly in its 

 action, while that of others is less dangerous and 

 only gives rise to unpleasant symptoms ; but in all 

 cases the virulence thereof depends to a great extent 

 upon the health and vitality of those which secrete it. 

 By far the most dangerous of venomous creatures 

 are to be found amongst the snakes, but certain 

 lizards, spiders, centipedes, scorpions, frogs, fish, 

 wasps, bees, ants, jelly-fish, and caterpillars are 

 endowed also with the power to emit a poisonous 

 fluid from their glands. Even amongst the mam- 

 mals we have examples in the duckbill, platypus 

 or ornithorynchus, and the echidnas, which are 

 capable of inflicting a poisonous wound through the 

 agency of horn-like spurs projecting from the 

 creatures' heels in an upwards and backwards 

 direction for a distance of about an inch. 



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