240 



VENOMOUS ANIMALS 



phlegmonous and gangrenous symptoms so severe that the arm 

 had to be amputated. 



Acanthurus luridus.—Acanthurus luridus possesses a poison 

 apparatus connected with the dorsal and anal fins like that of 

 ScorpcBfia. 



Elasmohranchii. — Associated with the poisonous fish of the Tele- 

 ostei must be placed those of the Elasmohranchii, of which the 

 sting rays (Trygonidse) and eagle rays (Myliobatidae) alone produce 

 toxic symptoms by blows with the tail, which carries a spine. 

 These Rays are found all over the world, and we have received 

 information as to their effects from persons who have been in 

 British Guiana, in Australia, and in Ceylon, in which island stings 

 are well known on the west coast, particularly about Dutch Bay. 



Dr. Crevaux has studied Rays from the Orinoco, and has shown 

 that their barbs are canalized and the canals connected with poison 

 reservoirs. This poison is said to be so severe as to be able to kill 

 a man in forty-eight hours. The symptoms of Aetohatis narinari, 

 called the Bishop ray, and of Trygon pastinaca (from Japan), are 

 violent pain, a tendency to syncope, with locally a rapidly forming 

 swelling, which soon becomes the seat of a violent inflammation 

 and even at times gangrene. The symptoms of the sting, as 

 observed by us in Ceylon, are local pain and swelling. The general 

 symptoms are not severe. Trygon sephen and T. walga Miill. and 

 Hen. are known in Indian waters. 



A large number of these Elasmohranchii have not got special 

 poison glands, and the venom must come from the ordinary skin 

 glands. 



Amphibia. 



Toads and salamanders have been celebrated for ages as venomous 

 animals, the poison being found in their parotid glands and skin. 

 In toads Faust has shown that there are two poisons — (i) an 

 acid, bufotalin, and (2) a neutral body, bufonin, the former being 

 the more active. It is, as a rule, scarcely toxic to man, only 

 irritating the mucous membranes, especially the conjunctiva; but 

 to small animals it is toxic. 



In salamanders Zalesky and Faust have found two bodies, one an 

 inorganic base- — salamandariu' — and another an alkaloid- — salaman- 

 daridin; but this poison and the digitalis-like poison of Bert and 

 Dulartre in frogs are not of sufficient practical interest to concern 

 us here. 



According to Vulpian and Caparelli, Triton cristatus (Laur) gives 

 a creamy secretion from the glands of the skin at times which is 

 poisonous to many animals, but the chemical nature of which is 

 not known. 



