7 1 38 Zoological Notes from Aneilevm . 



appeared, and in the course of about a week the patient recovered his 

 usual health. With regard to this case it is right to mention that 

 although satisfied by the circumstantial evidence that contact with an 

 Intrag had produced extraordinary effects, yet 1 could not separate 

 them satisfactorily from those fairly attributable to the ligature. No 

 pain was felt before the bandage was applied. 



A case which terminated fatally may now be mentioned. On the 

 28th of May, 1859, I went along with the Rev. J. Geddie to see a sick 

 woman, who, fourteen days before, was believed to have been poisoned 

 by her hands having accidentally come in contact with an Intrag while 

 collecting shell-fish on the reef The whole right hand and arm to 

 within a few inches of the axilla were in a state of gangrene, with the 

 bone exposed in several places. No haemorrhage, however, had taken 

 place. I could see that numerous small but deep incisions had been 

 made in the arm. There was not, I may mention, as with a light 

 skinned person, the same facility for ascertaining the exisience of a 

 line of demarcation between the living and the dead portions of the 

 body. Apparently, there was sound material enough to render ampu- 

 tation at the shoulder-joint possible, but, unfortunately, on the back 

 of the shoulder, also on the sides of the chest, there were indications 

 of incipient gangrene in the peeling off of the cuticle, and the formation 

 of vesicles, rendering the operation unadvisable, because holding out 

 no hope of saving life. In this case I learned that a tight bandage 

 had been kept on for several days, probably of itself sufficient to induce 

 mortification even in a healthy limb. 



These two cases are the only ones of which I can say anything from 

 personal observation, and I shall make no further comment than 

 merely to observe that as I cannot find any special apparatus in the 

 animal of Conns textile, or see any anatomical difference between it 

 and C. arenatus (which is known to be innocuous) after examining 

 both, I feel great reluctance in subscribing even to the universal 

 popular belief on this island of the power of the Intrag to cause injury 

 to man in the manner ascribed to it. A jet from the siphon of the 

 animal might partially account for the first sensation experienced. 

 No puncture or abrasion of the cuticle is ever spoken of, but in some 

 cases, I have been told, the skin has been discoloured, — the word 

 used being " emilmat," which means either blue or green. 



On the Fishes of Aneiteum. — Before packing up a collection of 

 fishes I may as well pen a few remarks. As it includes everything 

 brought to me which was neither too large nor too small to be skinned 



