CUTANEOUS EXUDATION OF TRITON CRISTATUS. 495 



skin of the Tritons upon the subject of experiment appeared 

 usually to be" far more powerful than when obtained artificially, 

 and fully to justify the popular prejudice against these creatures. 

 On the Tritons themselves the effect of the poison appeared to be 

 painful and stupifying ; in this case the poison could be thoroughly 

 administered by obliging the specimen under experiment to open 

 the mouth sufficiently to allow the tail of another to be repeatedly 

 inserted between the jaws, where it would usually be held so 

 firmly that the bitten one could be raised in the air suspended 

 from the mouth of the biter. The results generally were : — first a 

 small quantity of foam appearing round the jaws whilst attached 

 to the bitten Newt ; on being detached, the bitten one did not 

 appear to suffer, but the biter to be in much discomfort, shown in 

 various ways, by dilating the throat-pouches, snapping loudly with 

 the jaws, rubbing the sides of the head as if to get rid of some 

 adhering substance, and in one case by convulsions. The effect 

 gradually passed away ; and the circulation of the blood did not 

 appear to be affected by it, save that in all the cases of the biting 

 Newts which I examined, the circulation was rapid and conti- 

 nuous, whilst in about a quarter of the others, whether bitten or 

 in their usual state, it appeared variable, occasionally almost en- 

 tirely suspended locally, sometimes oscillatory (the blood-globules 

 distinctly moving backwards and forwards) and returning suddenly 

 in rapid continuous or in jerking flow. 



On a strong and healthy cat being shown some of the Tritons 

 (although recently well fed, so that he could have no inducement 

 of hunger for attacking them), he immediately seized on them, 

 and after gnawing them in various parts for about a minute 

 dropped them, and was immediately attacked with a discharge of 

 large drops of clear saliva from the mouth, followed by large strings 

 of foam from the corners of the jaws, accompanied by violent and 

 audible action of the jaws, as if to discharge some substance from 

 the mouth. 



On the human subject the effect appears much stronger. For 

 the sake of exactly ascertaining the sensations (which in the lower 

 animals could only be judged of by their apparent effects), a part 

 of the back and tail of a live Triton were gently pressed between 

 the teeth sufficiently to alarm the animal and cause it to give out 

 its acrid cutaneous exudation. The first effect was a bitter astrin- 

 gent feel in the mouth, with irritation of the upper part of the 

 throat, numbing of the teeth more immediately holding the rep- 



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