84 Papers from the Department of Marine Biology. 



Dampier (1729) in his first voyage to Campeachy landed on the Isle 

 of Pines on the south side of Cuba near the west end. Among the 

 animals of which he makes mention are large land crabs. Of their 

 feeding he says: 



"The Manchaniel Fruit, which neither Bird nor Beast will taste, is greedily 

 devoured by them, without doing them any harm. Yet these very crabs 

 that feed on Manchaniel, are venomous both to Man and Beast that feeds 

 on them, though the others are very good Meat." 



There is now to be quoted an account which, because no certain fish 

 is named, may seem of doubtful relevancy, but which, as the sequel 

 will show, is of direct value to the matter in hand, and in all proba- 

 bility relates to the very fish under consideration. In the Philosophi- 

 cal Transactions of the Royal Society for 1675 there is published an 

 extract from a letter of one Mr. "J. L." to the publisher concerning 

 poisonous fish in the Bahamas. It reads as follows: 



"The Fish that are here, are many of them poysonous, bringing a great 

 pain in their joynts who eat them, which continues for some short time, and 

 at last with two or three days itching the pain is rubbed off. Those of the 

 same species, size, shapes, colour, and taste are one of them poyson, the other 

 not in the least hurtful. And those that are, are so only to some of the com- 

 pany. The distemper to Men never, that we hear of, proves mortal. Doggs 

 and Cats sometimes eat their last. In men who have once had the disease, 

 upon the first eating of the fish, though it be those that are wholesome, the 

 poisonous ferment in their body is revived thereby, and their pain increased." 



There is another account, nearly 200 years later, from the pen of the 

 English surgeon, Morton (1868). Commenting on the great variety of 

 fish caught at Nassau, he adds : 



"Some of these fish, at certain times of the year, are very unwholesome, and, 

 when eaten, give rise to severe purgings, vomiting, and cramps. During our 

 stay, four men belonging to a coasting vessel were poisoned, one of whom died 

 from eating part of a large barracouta, which they had caught. This fish, 

 when large, is said to be very unsafe food, and great risk is run in eating it. 

 The one which gave rise to fatal results in this instance, was upwards of five 

 feet in length." 



Sir Hans Sloane (1707), in volume n of his "Natural History of 

 Jamaica," says of the barracuda: 



"According to its feeding on venemous or non-venemous Food, 'tis whole- 

 some or poysonous to those who eat it; 'tis also noxious in some Seasons of the 

 Year, and in some Places, and innocent in others, I suppose according to its 

 Nourishment, by which now and then, it acquires so much poison as to kill 

 immediately." 



However, Dr. Patrick Browne (1756) says, of the two species which 

 he found in Jamaican waters, that "they are both firm and palatable 

 fishes, much esteemed by many people." 



