132 
WEAPONS OF ANIMALS. 
The most formidably armed of all animals are the cats. 
No weapon can be more powerful or terrific in its action at 
close quarters than the retractile claw wielded by such 
muscular limbs as those of the lion and the tiger, and when 
to this terrible claw is added the no less terrible canine tooth, 
the creature so armed may well become the tyrant of his 
jungle. 
Perhaps the most remarkable of all animal weapons is the 
electric battery possessed by two families of fishes—the 
torpedoes and the electric eels. These batteries consist of 
plates of bone and cartilage arranged in a sort of honey-comb 
fashion, the interstices being filled with gelatinous liquid and 
the whole apparatus supplied with innumerable nerves. The 
torpedoes are fiat fish, and have two batteries, one on each 
side of the head. The electric eels have each four batteries. 
That these are reservoirs of energy is proved by the fact that 
when exhausted by repeated discharges they only become 
recharged after long rest and an abundant supply of food. 
They afford strong evidence that nerve force is a form of the 
same energy which is exhibited in the physical world as heat, 
light, and motion. 
Throughout the whole vertebrate section of the animal 
world teeth form one of the principal weapons, except among 
the birds. No bird has yet been seen with anything like true 
teeth. Birds form a highly specialised and almost abnormal 
class, evidently evolved by long selection from some old 
reptilian type ; and in the chelonian or tortoise group of 
modern reptiles occurs the same suppression of teeth and 
hardening of the lips into horny mandibles, which is so 
strongly characteristic of birds. The reason for this modi¬ 
fication of the mouth in birds may, perhaps, be found in the 
same necessity for diminished weight which has modified 
their bones and limbs. The arched hook of the eagle’s beak is 
as strong, though composed only of light horn, as any tooth 
could be of solid and heavy ivory. In the birds of prey 
there is the same combination of armed feet and mouth as in 
the mammalian cats. The talons of the eagle are not 
actually retractile, but the action of the free-spreading toes 
gives them a similarly piercing grip. 
A considerable number of the weapons enumerated in the 
table are of rare occurrence, confined to small groups or 
single genera. 
The palpi of the invertebrate mouth, which in most cases 
are soft and harmless organs, are converted, in the scorpions 
and clielifers, into weapons armed with jointed claws, like 
those of the lobster. 
