292 



VENOMS 



loain is excruciating, and sufferers have been observed to become 

 actually delirious, striking and biting those around them, throwing 

 themselves from side to side, and beseeching that the linab should be 

 cut off; some of them have amputated the injured part themselves. 



This condition is accompanied by considerable anxiety, and by 

 attacks of leipothymia and sometimes of syncope. In some cases 

 syncope has been followed by death ; in others serious phlegmons, 

 complicated by septica?inia, supervene. The inoculated spot be- 

 comes bluish, and then sphacelates over a larger or smaller area. 

 These gangrenous wounds heal very slowly, more especially since 

 they are usually produced on the sole of the foot (Bottard). 



A single drop of the venom is sufficient to kill frogs in about 

 three hours. 



Fig. 102. — Cottus scorpius (Sea Scorpion). (After SavtscLieuko.) 



The genus Cottus, which also belongs to the family Triglid.i:, 

 includes some forty venomous species found in the seas of the 

 northern hemisphere, in Europe, Asia, and America. 



In I'^raiice the species of Cottus are generally called cJtahots 

 (bullheads or miller's thumbsj, cluiholsscaux (sea-scorpions), or 

 caravmssous. They are abundant on the coast of Normandy, 

 and some of them (rivei' bullheads) live in fresh water ; they 

 do not exceed 'lb cm. in leiigtli. They liave a liking for holes 



