May 25, 1888.] 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



491 



the wound far from easy, while its peculiar influence 

 greatly aggravates the injury. Probably a chemical 

 analysis of its constituent elements would set this point 

 at rest. But certain it is, in any case, that the wounds 

 which it causes produce results which can only be due 

 to poison, although the injection of poison does not 

 appear to be involved. The spines of the weever fish, 

 as we have seen, bear a striking resemblance to the 

 fangs of a venomous snake, or to the sting of the scorpion, 

 inasmuch as they are channelled from base almost to 

 point, while their grooves terminate in a small cavity 

 hollowed out at the base. But in the tail-spine of the 

 sting ray we do not even find such a structure as this. 



less first interfered with or disturbed. Of these, the 

 most formidable are those creatures which are grouped 

 together under the popular title of " No'u," and of 

 which we may select Synanceia verrucosa, one of the 

 most plentiful and widely distributed, as our example. 



In this fish the venom-weapons consist of a large num- 

 ber of long and exceedingly sharp spines, which run 

 along the back, and indeed over almost the whole of the 

 upper surface of the body and head. As one author 

 well remarks, they form a perfect chevaux-de-frise of 

 defence against all foes. Every one of these spines is a 

 poison-injecting weapon, whose mere prick is inevitably 

 productive of intense suifering, while, should three or 



\ 



The Sting Ray (Trygon Pastinaca). 



The weapon and the wound which it causes are utterly 

 contradictory. The one appears to be of such a character 

 that the injection of poison cannot possibly be involved 

 in its employment ; the other is followed by results 

 which cannot well be due to any other source. And so, 

 for the present at iny rate, the investigator is wholly and 

 completely at fault. 



We have now seen something of the manner in 

 which certain poison-bearing fishes, such as the weever 

 and the sting-ray, employ their natural weapons 

 for purposes of offence. There are others, however, 

 equally or even more venomous, which act, as a general 

 rule, strictly on the defensive, and never attack a foe un- 



four simultaneously inflict their terrible wounds, death 

 is the almost certain result. Such a fate not unfrequently 

 overtakes the natives of New Guinea, and of several of 

 the Pacific Islands. Wading in search of shell-fish, etc., 

 in the shallow water near the shore, thej' tread upon a 

 No'u lying upon the mud at the bottom, and the mischief 

 is done. There is no hope for the sufferer, who is as 

 surely doomed as if he had been bitten by a rattlesnake 

 or a cobra. The wounded limb rapidly swells until the 

 skin is stretched almost to bursting ; the violent pain 

 which immediately follows the wound rapidly extends, 

 first to the body and then to the other members. And, 

 finally, tetanus sets in, and the sufferer dies in terrible 



