Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 306, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 January 1918 — POISONOUS BITE OF FISHES [ARTICLE]

POISONOUS BITE OF FISHES

Attacks of the Octopus and Other Rovers of the Sea Are Explained by Pleron. It used to be supposed that cuttlefishes suffocated crabs with their suckers and then tore them open with their beaks. But the method is more subtle, says Knowledge. In 1895 Krause showed that the secretion of the posterior salivary glands of the octopus was very toxic; and it was supposed that the octopus gave a poisonous bite. But Pieron has recently shown that the octopus at least does not bite the crab until after death. The paralyzing secretion is probably wafted into the crab with the respiratory current. Similarly, in regard to bivalves it was thought that the cuttlefish forced the valves asunder by fixing suckers to each valve and then pulling in opposite directions. But Pieron has shown with cockles, mussels, scallops, and the like that the toxic juice first paralyzes the adductor muscles. In the case of the cockle the octopus breaks, some of the teeth on the posterior margin of the shell, so that the salivary juice may get'in more readily. After paralysis has set in force is employed, but it does not require much. The secretion from the stomach of the starfish has apparently the same paralyzing action on bivalves.