410 PEOSE HALIBUTICS. 



wives/ ' vieilles/ and ' alte "Weiber ' by England and her 

 present allies and neutrals. These ' old wives' form a 

 splendid regiment, and are admirably equipped for ac- 

 tion or retreat, having a terrible weapon on the back, 

 which can be suddenly raised and fixed when their pur- 

 pose is to attack ; and being also possessed of a singular 

 power of suddenly coUapsing their bodies and disappear- 

 ing before a foe, whom they may not think it prudent to 

 cope with. They are, it appears, not less dangerous to en- 

 counter at table, than alive and in their own element. 

 Dr. Meunier, a physician of the Isle of France, reports 

 that this plectognathean contains a very virulent poi- 

 son, which, acting primarily on the nervous tissue of the 

 stomach, produces first violent spasms of that organ, 

 and shortly afterwards muscular contractions of every 

 part of the body; a very short time after eating, he says, 

 the whole frame is racked with spasmodic action, the 

 tongue becomes thickened, the eyes fixed, while the mus- 

 cles of the face twitch convulsively ; the breathing is very 

 laborious and difficult, and the patient is often carried 

 ofi' in a paroxysm of extreme suffering. The meatus taken 

 to avert such sad consequences are simple, but, to have 

 any chance of success, must be had recourse to at once ; 

 they consist in first administering strong emetics, to 

 bring away every particle of the poisoned meat, then fol- 

 lowing up the treatment by giving oils and other demul- 

 cents to aUay the subsequent irritabihty of the stomach; 

 later, vegetable acids and tonics, as they can be borne, com- 

 plete the cure. It appears, however, from his account 

 of a soldier who had imprudently eaten a part of one' of 

 these old girls, but ultimately recovered, that convales- 

 cence was very slow indeed, and that the man had pain's 

 in the arms and legs for a considerable period, which it 

 required, says this ptisanier doctor, ' tamarind-tea, lemon- 

 juice, and other minoratives,' successfully to combat, and 

 at last remove. The flesh of the common hedgehog dio- 



