35§ DR. EVANS ON THE POISONED SPINES OF THE WEEVER FISH. 
the filtered liquid for his researches and lor the purpose he 
used the opercular and dorsal spines of 350 Weevers caught 
between the end of May and beginning of June, and 70 caught 
in September. 
The method that I employed was, I think, more scientific 
and accurate. I obtained freshly caught Weevers from a buyer 
who was in the habit of collecting fish for the Board of Trade, 
and could be thoroughly trusted. These I washed under 
a tap. and with pledgets of absorbent gauze wiped any mucus 
and dirt from their opercular spines. I then laid the fish in 
rows and again wiped the heads with wool. With a sterilized 
syringe I extracted from within the sheath, by means of 
inserting the needle along the groove of the spine, as much 
poison as possible, obtaining no doubt a certain quantity of 
cellular elements ; but I avoided those heads in which there 
was postmortem staining of the vascular tissue of the sheath. 
The fluid thus obtained, say from 100 fish, was collected in 
a watch glass and placed in a desiccator (Hempel’s), the rim 
being filled with pure sulphuric acid and the air exhausted by 
means of a pump. In this way, from neaidy 2,000 fish, 
I obtained several grammes of dried Weever poison. This, 
before making experiments, was finely powdered in a pestle 
and mortar and dissolved in either distilled water or normal 
saline solution. These solutions were used either with 
a certain quantity of solid matter suspended, or filtered, or 
better, after being centrifugalised, to obtain a resulting clear 
fluid. 
Briot says he was the first to make intravenous injections 
in the Rabbit. Half a cubic centimeter of his solution caused 
death so rapidly that he had not time to finish his injection. 
With .2 or .1 C.C. death was slower, taking several minutes 
and, according to this observer, it was death by asphyxia. 
To quote (page 1170) ‘ Comptes Rendus Soc. Biologie ’ : — 
In opening the animal immediately after the pupil reflex 
was abolished, one found that the blood was not coagulated 
in the portal vein or heart. The heart continued to beat for 
several minutes and artificial stimuli caused it to contract for 
some little time. There was no doubt that death was due 
