The mode of operating is simple enough. The syringe is filled with the drug, and the point introduced under the skin at any given spot. Pressure on the piston then forces out the liquid, and causes it to mix with the blood.
Natural Animal Poisons.
Now, both in the animal and vegetable worlds may be found several examples of an apparatus which acts in exactly the same manner.
The first is the poison-fang of the Serpent, a specimen of which is given on the left hand of the illustration. This fang answers in every respect to the syringe above mentioned. The long and slender fang is hollow, and answers to the pipe of the syringe. It communicates at the base with a reservoir of liquid poison, which answers to the body of the syringe, and there is a little hole, or rather slit, just above the point, which allows the poison to escape.
When the serpent makes its stroke, the base of the fang is driven against the reservoir, so that the liquid is urged through the hollow tube, and forced into the wound. Even in large serpents these fangs are very small. I have now before me some fangs of the cobra, puff-adder, rattlesnake, and viper, and it is astonishing how small and slender are these most deadly weapons. The figure in the illustration is much magnified, in order to show the aperture at the base, where communication is made with the interior of the fang. As the exit hole is on the upper curve of the fang, it is not visible in the figure.
Next to the serpent’s fang is a representation of the Bee-sting, the poisonous reservoir being seen at the base, and having attached to it the tiny thread-like gland by which the poison is secreted.
In the centre is seen the tail of a Scorpion, with its hooked sting. The last joint is formed just like the serpent’s fang, being hollow, having a sharp point with a slit near the end, and a poison reservoir in the rounded base. When the scorpion attacks an enemy, it strikes violently with the tail, and the force of the blow drives out the poison just as is done with the serpent’s fang.
At the bottom of the illustration is shown the poison-fang of a Spider, which, as the reader may see, is formed just on the principle of the scorpion-sting.
Natural Vegetable Poisons.
So much for animal poisons. We will now pass to the vegetable world.