6 T. P. ANDERSON STUART. 



each other belly to belly. The scratches are mostly on the under 

 surface of the tail. The females are very seldom found scratched. 

 One of the hunters tells of a dog he had which was " stung" on. 

 three different occasions — each time both spurs were employed, 

 and the wounds were always on the dog's cheeks. The wounds 

 are always described as on the head or face somewhere, because 

 they are inflicted while the dog is retrieving the wounded animal. 

 The effects followed very quickly, like the sting of a bee, within 

 a couple of minutes the head began to swell, and on the first 

 occasion had reached a "tremendous" size within a quarter of an 

 hour. This swelling gradually disappeared, and was gone in 

 thirty-six, ten, and three hours on the first, second, and third 

 occasions respectively. The swelling and all the other symptoms 

 were less marked the second than they were the first time, and 

 the third than the second time. The swollen head was tender to 

 the touch, for the dog "sang out" when it was touched there. The 

 eyes were at first closed up by the swelling, and when again 

 visible were " wild looking." The dog became sleepy, as if under 

 the influence of a strong narcotic, so that he had to be carried to 

 the camp, and he moaned from time to time. The dog would 

 neither eat nor drink, but there was no salivation, vomiting, 

 diarrhoea, tremor, convulsions, nor staggering. Breathing was 

 difficult, but not very. This dog quite recovered. 



My other account is from one of two brothers who were both 

 great hunters of platypus, and he confesses to having been wicked 

 enough to have shot many thousands during his thirty-two years 

 of work. He had four valuable water dogs that died from the 

 " stings." On one occasion he actually saw the platypus strike, 

 heard the dog whine, saw the wound, and the train of symptoms 

 ending in death. These were comparatively large dogs. He knew 

 that after he himself gave up hunting, his brother, who went on 

 with it, lost dogs too. The drowsiness was so intense that he has had 

 to carry the dogs on horseback with him for as long as three hours. 



The first of the two accounts of the action of the poison in the 

 human subject which I have found, was that communicated in 



