Introduction. 25 



siderable fever. On some parts of the Yorkshire coast they 

 are considered poisonous, and in consequence never eaten; 

 and several cases are on record in which their use proved 

 fatal. Some of Captain Vancouver's men having breakfasted 

 on roasted muscles, virere soon after seized with a numbness 

 about their faces and extremities ; their whole bodies were 

 shortly affected in the same manner, attended with sickness 

 and giddiness, and one died. In the month of June, 1827, a 

 great number of the poor in Leith were poisoned by eating 

 these shellfish, which they procured from the docks. "The 

 town," says Dr. Combe, " was in a ferment, and the magis- 

 trates, with great propriety, issued a warning against the use 

 of the muscles. Many deaths were reported, and hundreds 

 of individuals were stated to be suffering under it. Luckily, 

 matters were not so deplorable ; but we ascertained that, in 

 addition to the man mentioned before, the companion of our 

 patient, an elderly woman, had died. In all, about thirty cases 

 occurred, with great uniformity of symptoms, but varying very 

 much in severity ; but none, so far as I know, have left any 

 permanent bad effects." To what cause these deleterious 

 effects are to be ascribed is uncertain; for muscles, you are 

 aware, may commonly be eaten with impunity. Some attri- 

 bute them to disease in the fish, or to its being in a state of 

 putrefaction ; others to its having fed on some poisonous 

 articles, more particularly on the ores of copper ; and others, 

 again, to the peculiar idiosyncrasies of the sufferers. In many 

 cases this latter explanation will suffice ; but sometimes, as in 

 the Leith cases, it is obviously insufficient. The disease of 

 the fish has never been satisfactorily ascertained: they are 

 eaten fresh and alive, and cannot, of course, be putrid; while 

 the most delicate chemical tests give no indications of cupreous 

 impregnation. Upon the whole, the effects seem to be biest 

 explained by attributing them to a peculiar poison generated 

 in the fish, under unknown circumstances ; an opinion adopted 

 by those medical men who have attended most to the subject. 

 Now list ! One of the Mollusca actually doth attack man 

 vi et armis, I must beg you will, like a good-natured hero 

 of Mr. Crabbe's, dispose yourself " wonders to believe," and 

 be ready to grant 



" That things improbable may still be true." 



" A friend of mine," says Mr. Pennant, when speaking of 

 a kind of cuttle-fish (Octopus vulgaris), " long resident among 

 the Indian isles, and a diligent observer of nature, informed me 

 that the natives affirm that some have been seen two fathoms 

 broad over their centre, and each arm nine fathoms long. 



