THE ANNALS AND MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. XX. — On the Stinging property of the Lesser Weever-fish (Trachinus Vipera.). By George James Allman, Esq. In a Letter to Wm. Thompson, Esq., Vice-Pres. Natural History Society of Belfast. Bandon, August 20, 1840. My Dear Sir, I have lately had an opportunity of making some observa-tions on the reputed stinging power of the Lesser Weever [Trachinus Vipera), and the result, I think, may tend to clear up a point with respect to which much difference has pre-vailed among naturalists. The older naturalists seem almost universally to coincide with the popular opinion entertained respecting this little fish, and to agree in ascribing venomous properties to the wounds inflicted with its spines. There can be little doubt that the fishes to which the ancients gave the names Araneus, Draco, Dracunculus, and probably some others, were the Greater and Lesser Weevers of our coasts j and to those they invariably attribute poisonous properties. Pliny accuses the Araneus of inflicting dangerous wounds with the spines of its back. After speaking of a poisonous fish which he calls Lepus, he says, "^Eque pestiferum animal araneus, spina? in dorso aculeo noxius*." In another place, speaking of Dracunculus, he tells us that it inflicts poisoned wounds with the spines of the opercula : " Aculeos in branchiis habet ad caudam spectantes, sic ut scorpio laedit dum manu tolliturf." Similar properties are attributed to the dorsal spines of these fishes by ^Elian and Oppian. In the following pas-sage from the Halieutics several spinous fishes are grouped together, all of which are described by the poet as inflicting poisoned wounds, though some of them are undoubtedly in-nocuous, and classed here with venomous fishes, for the same reason which induces our own fishermen to attribute to the * Hist. Naturalis, ix. 72. f Ibid, xxxii. 53. Ann. # Mag. Nat. Hist. Nov. 1B40. m
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