432 The America,, .Y,< 



i May 



study it in all particulars,— advantages I have fully availed myself of, as 

 my published papers on the subject will attest. 



Adult Heloderms average some twenty inches in length, and are 

 covered with tuberculated scales, which vary in form in different parts 

 of the body, and in old specimens are prone to ossify over the back 

 and top of the head. These scales are of a shiny black and orange, 

 the two colors being arranged in a definite pattern, winch latter never 

 agrees in any two specimens. Notwithstanding this great size for a 

 lizard, and this most striking coloration, there are many people in 

 Arizona and in the southwest generally that apply the name " Gila 

 monster " to any large lizard-looking form that may come under their 

 observation. I have had medical officers in the army, ranchmen, 

 guides, and others, who surely ought to know better, point me out 

 Amblystomae, and even the common forms of the Phrynosoma, as 

 Gila monsters. This being the case, I feel quite sure that the excellent 

 figures which I have offered of a large female Heloderm that I had, 

 some time ago, alive for nearly two years, will be acceptable, and in 

 some respects exceedingly useful,— useful because the general opinion 

 in the southwest and elsewhere is that the bite of this saurian is poison- 

 patient has actually been bitten by a Heloderm and not by some- 

 thing else. 



Fig. 2 is from an instantaneous picture where 1 strapped my camera 

 in such a position as to bring the focal axis of the lens perpendicular 

 to the floor, where I placed a sheet of white blotting paper, over which 

 the reptile walked beneath the instrument, allowing me to secure the 

 photograph. In Figs, i and 3 the Heloderm was hypnotized, and 

 thus easily taken. In Fig. 1 the ventral aspect of her head and body is 

 resting upon a plane surface, which gives a flattened appearance, 

 but otherwise the likeness is admirable. The leading herpetologist in 

 this country, Professor Cope, who was my guest this week, examined 

 these photographs and remarked that they gave a better idea of the 

 form of a Heloderm than any of the many figures that had thus far 

 been published, either here or.in Europe. 



We now come to consider that part of the subject that falls more 

 properly within the title of this contribution,— in other words, the 

 nature of the bite of these reptiles. 



Even at the present writing the wide variance of opinion in these 

 premises is truly remarkable, for some of our most 



vestigators still disagree in the 1 





