ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS. 7 



1816 by Sir John Jamison to the Linnsean Society of London 



{vide Trans. Linn. Soc, March 18th, 1817). This account is so 



very interesting in the light of what I have to tell you on the 



same subject, and has been so much discredited or so completely 



overlooked and forgotten that I take leave to copy it here : — 



" I wounded one with small shot ; and on my overseer taking it out of 

 the water, it stuck its spurs into the palm and back of his right hand 

 with such force, and retained them in with such strength, that they 

 could not be withdrawn until it was killed. The hand instantly swelled 

 to a prodigious bulk ; and the inflammation having rapidly spread to his 

 shoulder, he was in a few minutes threatened with locked- jaw, and 

 exhibited all the symptoms of a person bitten by a venomous snake. 

 The pain from the first was insupportable, and cold sweats and sickness 

 afterward took place so alarmingly, that I found it necessary, besides 

 the external application of oil and vinegar, to administer large quantities 

 of the volatile alkali with opium, which I really think preserved his life. 

 He was obliged to keep to his bed for several days, and did not recover 

 the perfect use of his hand for nine weeks. This unexpected and extra- 

 ordinary occurrence induced me to examine the spur of the animal ; and 

 on pressing it down on the leg the fluid squirted through the tube : but 

 for what purpose Nature has so armed these animals is as yet unknown 

 to me." 



Jamison's description was quite unknown to the Rev. W. W. 

 Spicer who wrote the other account of the effects of the poison on 

 man, which I have found, (vide Papers and Proceedings and 

 Report, Roy. Soc. of Tasmania, 1876), and who says — "First, both 

 in date and value, are the observations of the veteran naturalist Dr. 

 Bennett," whose loss we in Sydney have so recently had to mourn. 

 Yet Dr. Bennett's writings on the subject were not published for 

 many years after Jamison's and they were negative, for he could 

 not get any evidence that the spur was a weapon of offence or 

 defence, since the animals never attempted to use it on himself. 

 These animals, however, were in captivity, and most people know 

 how difficult it sometimes is in such circumstances to get some 

 animals to use their weapons, while the description given by 

 Jamison and by Spicer were from animals in their natural state 

 and greatly irritated, the one by being shot and handled, the other 

 by being twice captured by the hand. 



