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Abstract

The monthly evening meeting of the Society was held on Tuesday,
March 12,
The Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of Tasmania in the chair.
The Rev. W. W. Spicer
read the following extract from a letter which he had lately received from
Professor Rolleston, M D., of Oxford :—"I have read with attention
your Royal Society Paper (Proc. Royal Soc. Tasmania 1876, p. 162) on
the poison gland of Ornithorhynchus. I should incline to think it analogous
to the multifarious weapons which help males in the battle of sexual
selection. The teeth and claws in which males so often differ from females
do not differentiate the sexes in Platypus, and this claw may be
supposed, with its appended gland, to have given a pre-eminence to
males in which it was pre-eminently developed. I apprehend that in the
cases where a lion's claw has been proved to have been venom-carrying,
it had been smeared with animal matter from some previous meal.
Any albuminoidal matter, such as 'Woorara,' or putridity of any kind, if
not too far gone in decomposition, will poison the lymphatics, or worse.
Our present epidemic of hydrophobia brings the thing home to one."

Item Type:	Article
Authors/Creators:	Royal Society of Tasmania
Keywords:	Royal Society of Tasmania, Van Diemens Land, VDL, Hobart Town, natural sciences, proceedings, records
Journal or Publication Title:	Papers & Proceedings and Report of the Royal Society of Tasmania
Collections:	Royal Society Collection > Papers & Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania
Additional Information:	In 1843 the Horticultural and Botanical Society of Van Diemen's Land was founded and became the Royal Society of Van Diemen's Land for Horticulture, Botany, and the Advancement of Science in 1844. In 1855 its name changed to Royal Society of Tasmania for Horticulture, Botany, and the Advancement of Science. In 1911 the name was shortened to Royal Society of Tasmania.
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