174 TlMEHRl, 
himself, and, as he thought, one that would interest me, 
as Curator of the Museum in town. 
Another case to which I would refer, is not so much im- 
probable in itself, as that it has never hitherto been stated 
as occurring. During 1889, a large sea devil, (Ceratop- 
tera vampyrus) , now preserved in the Museum, and 
of about fifteen feet in width, was stranded between the 
piles of one of the wharves in the river. Several rifle shots 
were fired into the anterior part of the body by Mr. Virtue 
of Water Street, who definitely states that, during the 
struggles of the great fish, crowds of young devil-fishes 
came out of its opened mouth, and swam about, plainly 
visible in the shallow water. Again, in this case, there 
was no doubt about the extremity from which they issued, 
since Mr. Virtue states that they were seen by himself 
issuing from the mouth, which could not be mistaken 
owing to its position in relation to himself, confirmed by 
the great arm-like pieces, bearing the eyes. As these 
great fishes are viviparous, there is the likelihood of such 
young ones issuing from the other extremity of the body, 
except for the definite statement made by Mr. VIRTUE 
in the matter. 
Venom in Harmless Snakes* — Two definite cases of 
the venomous a6tion of the secretions of harmless snakes 
seem to me worthy of mention. In the one case it is a 
matter of my own experience, in which I was bitten on 
the first finger by a large freshly-caught specimen ot the 
common red, white and black-banded coral snake 
(Erythrolamprus venustissimus), which happened to 
grasp my first finger in such a way as to drive its hinder 
grooved teeth, forcing them about three times, deep down 
