554 



THE AMERICAN NATURALIST [Vol. XLI 



this is added a quotation from Cope, — "From it [the pore] may 

 frefjuently be (h-a\vn a sohd gelatinous style ending in a tripod, 

 each limb of which is dichotomously divided into short branches of 

 regular length." Jordan and Evermann ('90) make a similar 

 statement and add, — "The sting from the pectoral spine is very 

 painful, rescnd)ling the sting of a bee, but worse." Again, Jordan 

 ('04) writes the following footnote,— "The wounds produced by 

 the sting of their sliarp pectoral spines are excessively painful. In 

 tlie axil is usu^illy a ])ore, probably the opening of a duct from a 

 poison gland. Tliis matter deserves investigation." Finally 

 ('05) he writes, — "In two genera, Noturus and Schilbeodes, a 

 poison gland exists at the base of the pectoral spine, and the wound 

 gives a sharp pain like the sting of a hornet and almost exactly 

 like the sting of a scorpion-fish." 



Boulenger ('04) does not consider this axillary sac a poison 

 gland. In this connection he says, — "I think this condition of 

 things has nothing to do with a poison organ, and is merely a 

 rej)etiti()n of what is observed in loaches and in the characinid 

 Xencx liarax, where 1 have found a gelatinous substance filling the 

 short (hu t by wlii. li the membrane of the air bladder is placed in 

 coniinunication with the skin and the sensorv organ of the lateral 

 line." 



found in >exeral <hlV.Mvnt ,un.up. ..f lid..'., (iln.thcr , •('.',»> has 

 deMTibe<l a poi.on apparatus in T halus.ophnjuc rrtlrulaia u hich 

 inflicts a wound followed by poisonous .symptoms. At the ba.se 

 of the dorsal and opercular spines in this species he found a sac 

 connected with a canal passing through the whole length of the 

 s{Hne and oi)ening through a slit at its di.stal extremity. 11ms the 



innocnuu-^ M.I.Manrv and tlu-reforc I ha-.r n<.t lu-italcl li> <i.-ig- 



