130 
TETGON. 
The head enclosed on the sides by the pectoral fins; the body ele- 
vated; tail slender, without a fin, armed with a long spine, which is 
serrated on the edges. 
STING RAY. 
FIRE FLATRE. TRYGON. 
Pastinaea marina, 
it it 
Baia Tadtinaca, 
it it 
Baie Fastenarfuet 
Trygon Fastinacea^ 
« it 
n 
JONSTON ; p. 32. 
W 11 .LOUGHBT; p. 67, pi. 0. 3. 
Linr.eus. Donovan; pi. 99. 
Bloch, pi. 82. Jenyns; Manual, p. 51 S. 
Lacepede. Eisso; p. 10. 
Fleming; Br. Animals, p. 170, Ouvibb. 
Yakbell; Br. Fishes, vol. ii, p. 588. 
Gray; Catalogue Br. Museum, p. 118. 
The ancients were well acquainted with this fish, and had 
an extravagant dread of what they supposed the poisonous 
effects of a wound inflicted by the dart on its tail. There is 
no doubt that this may be the cause of considerable injury 
when dashed about in all directions, by the vibration of the 
tail of an angry fish; and it is not improbable that a formi- 
dable inflammation would follow; and even that an attack of 
tetanus or lock-jaw has been produced in a constitution of body 
already prepared for such consequences. Such a superstition is 
countenanced by what Matthiolus says, in his “Commentaries 
on Dioscorides,” of instances where death from the wound has 
been attended with convulsions and contractions of the whole 
body. He also quotes uEtius as saying that such wounds are 
soon followed with severe pains and deadness, which spread 
Qvei the whole body. It is, therefore, with some truth that 
