GILL] LIFE HISTORIES OF TOADFISHES 419 
very painful for a time on account of the acuteness of the spines, 
are of a mechanical nature and are not followed by any aggravated 
symptoms. The same experimentalist found that wounds resulting 
from punctures with an opercular spine, while equally or more pain- 
ful, were followed by more serious consequences, such as fever, 
shivering, and, in extreme cases, cedema and gangrene. Briot was 
led to such conclusions by experiments made on animals (stickle- 
backs, toads and rabbits) as well as observation of wounds incurred 
by fishermen. The record of his investigations may be found in 
the Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des seances de la Société de 
Biologie (LV, pp. 623-624). 
The experimental observations of Briot are not inconsistent with 
the histological investigations of L. Gressin and W. N. Parker 
(1888). Those observers, it is 
true, found venomiferous glands 
connected with dorsal: spines of 
weevers as well as with their oper- 
cular ones but the former were 
much less developed and the spines 
themselves less formidable than the 
corresponding parts of the oper- 
cular apparatus. In the words of 
Parker, “ distinct glands are present 
in the grooves of the opercular and 
dorsal spines, and in the former 
they are very large, extending a 
considerable distance both above RRSP A et ht 
and below the spine, along the the Late removed, viewed upon 
greater part of its length. The the external surface, and magnified 
glands consist of relatively enor- about five times in linear extent. 
mous: granular nucleated cells, the % % @, a, The grooves in the edges 
structure of which is apparently Ore eres apa ene comical 
fete th hath iaeiiae h cavities in which the grooves ter- 
simular in bot species of northern minate; c, c’, the external walls of 
weevers. the cavities ; d, d’, the internal 
It is remarkable that the poison walls. The parieties of the cavities 
glands were long denied existence ig transparent, d’ is represented 
5 ; as visible through the external wall. 
by observers and histologists. For 
f r After Allman. 
example, Cuvier and Valenciennes 
(1829) specifically asserted that the spines had none. “ :n’ayant 
aucun canal, ne communiquant avec aucune glande, elles ne peuvent 
verser dans les plaies un venin proprement dit.” G. J. Allman 
(1841) was also “not able to detect any specific gland connected 
Fic. 123.—Lesser weever’s oper- 
