VENOMS IN TEE ANIMAL 8EBIE8 



281 



paralysis, with coagulation of the blood ; subcutaneously it leads 

 to the formation of enormous abscesses, with necrosis of the tissues. 

 Small animals, such as spiders, species 

 of Scutigera, beetles, &c., are very sen- 

 sitive to it. 



The bite of ScolopendridcB is very 

 painful to human beings. In the 

 Tropics such bites often cause some- 

 what serious results : insomnia, ac- 

 celerated and intermittent pulse, and 

 local oedema, which usually disappears 

 after twenty - four hours. Well- 

 authenticated fatal accidents have 

 never been recorded (Bachelier,^ 

 Saulie^). 



(d) Insects. 



A very large number of insects 

 produce acrid or irritant secretions, 

 which serve them as a means of de- 

 fence, but cannot be considered as true 

 venoms ; the species of Meloe (oil- 

 beetles) and Cantliaris (blister-beetles), 

 are the most remarkable in this respect. 



The Order Hymenoptera is the only 

 one that includes a multitude of species 

 really provided with poison-glands and an inoculatory apparatus. 



The poison-organs, which have been well studied, especially by 

 Leuckart,' Leydig,* Carlet,* and more especially by L. Bordas," 



Fig. 99. — Poison-appaeatus 



OF THE BkE. 



gl.ac. Acid gland and its two 

 branches; F, poison-sac ; gl.al, 

 alkaline gland ; gor, gorget. 



(After Carlet : figure bor- 

 rowed from Hommel.) 



' " La soolopendre et sa piqure," These Paris, 1887. 



^ " Appareil venimeux et venin de la soolopendre," These Montpellier, 1885. 



' " Lehrbuch der Anatomie der Wirbellosen Tiere," 1848. 



* Arch fur anat. Wissensch., 1859. 



^ Comptes rendus de I'Acad. des Scienc&s, 1884. 



^ "Appareil glandulaire des hym^nopteres," Paris, 1894. 



