The Marlboro democrat. [volume] (Bennettsville, S.C.) 1882-1908, 1907-08-09
HORNED LIZARD.
Which Elects Blood From Its Eyes
at VIII.

nal World.
A letter from st. Louis says no
creature in the world but the horn
ed lizard can eject blood from it's
eyes. That reptile now stands uni
que among all the creeping, craw-
flying, walking things of ami
NAL nature. 1t is the only animal on
earth whose eye is an offensive wea-
pom, a squirt gun to eject what may
prove to be a poisonous fluid.
So strange and fantastic is this
habit of the horned lizard that sober
scientists pooh-poohed the stories
told by Indians and 'greasers'' of
the Southwest, where on sandy, SUI
.per-heatcd, excessively dry plains the
lizard has its habitat. No class Of
men in the world are nor c%onserva-
tive than the scientists. Yet nobody
better than they appreciates and un-
dcrstandS the wonders to be expect
ed of nature. They are willing to
investigate and study day and night,
because they know that what infor-
nation they now have is but a tiny
portion of the staggering wonders
creation yet has to reveal.
But the story that the horned liz
ards eye is syringe used to resist
attacks from its enemies was too
grotcsquc, too utterly at variance
with every other known fact of ana
tony and physiology to receive con
sidcration ven from the most in
quisitivc of the mature students.
Naturally they looked upon such
unhcard-of-talcs as vagaries Of the
ignorant and superstituous or weird
illusions of men whose brains had
become unhingcd by i-,..cnsc heat and
drought in the desert.
Among all creature of which sci
cncc had knowledge, the eye had one
function and one function alone,
idcntica! in al! eases. The eye is the
organ Of vision. There are strange
things to be found in the eyes of ami
mails, but every popularity Of the
optic construction is to meet some
peculiar and special need of the par
ticular creature. All the different
formations and constructions are
based only on laws of optics. Until
the horned lizards popularity was
seen and verified, no eye had ever
been heard of which was more than
a machine for seeing.
But the lizard, when aroused to a
high pitch of anger or fearful of
great and impending danger, s~tiffens
itself, makes its eyelids rigid and
then, exerting some inward force yet
unexplained, ELECTS from the corner
Of its eye a jet of blood that shoots
many feet and is of volume enough
to spatter big stains on a wall.
The first time this phenomenon
was recently observed by a scientist,
he was startled and amazed. He had
heard stories about the habit of the
horned lizard, but was skeptical and
had dismissed them from his mind.
He was engaged in measuring a fine
specimen Of the lizard when the ami
NAL, after exhibiting signs of great
excitement, suddenly grew rigid and
shot out a stream Of blood from its
eye: the elected fluid passing close
to thu head Of the naturalist. It gave
him a distinct nervous shock, but he
felt the thli,l of q scientist confront
ed by a e discovery.
The man was Raymond l.. Ditmars.
curator of reptiles in the New York
Zoo. Like other scientists, he had
ridiculed the idea of the idea Of the
animals eye being a syringe, but
convinced beyond doubt by what he
witnessed. He has described the in
cldcnt in his new contribution to
scientific literature, "Thc Reptile
Book" just published.
Mr.. Ditmars says the lizards arc
known as the genus phrynosoma of
American lizards and that there are,
all told, seventeen varitics, four of
which are Indigenous to Mexico. In
describing how he learned the won
dcr1ul truth about the eyes of these
lizards, he says:
An unusually large specimen was
received. photographed the lizard
and then proceeded to measure it, a
process which greatly excited the
creature.
ut finally threw the head slightly
upward he says "the neck became
rigid, the eyes bulged from the sock
cts, when there was a distinct sound
like that produced if one presses the
tongue against the roof Of the mouth
and forces a small quantity Of air
forward.
This rasping sound, consuming
but the Traction Of a'sccond, was ac-
companicd by a jet of blood at great
pressure. 1t hit the wall, four feet
away, at the same level as that of
the reptile.
The durati IN Of the flow of blood
appeared to be about one and a half
seconds, and toward its termination
the force gradually diminished, as
noticed by a course of drops down
the wall and along the floor to a DO
sltlon almost under the spot whore
the reptile had been held.
The stream Of blood seemed to be |
as fine as a horse hair and to issue
from the oyclid, which was momcn-
tarlIy much swollen. For some time
after the performance the cyes were
tightly closed and nothing could in
duce the lizard to open them. With
IN two minutes after it was placed on
The ground the protruding aspect of
cycballs and the swelling of the
nyelids had disappeared.
Most surprising was the amount
blood expended. The wall and
floor showed a course Of thicklv
5prinklcd spots about onc-cighth Of
an inch in diameter. There we're 1913
)l these spots
What would Darwin have done
mad he heard of Tie lizard who SHIFTS