



FOUL FISH AND FILTH FEVERS. 317 



ably caused by breathing' in the dry dust made in their business. In other instances 

 the organic dust made by workers of mother-of-pearl, being absorbed into their lungs 

 and thence into their blood, causes an affection at the end of their bones near the 

 joints, simulating the symptoms of acute rheumatism. Sometimes mother-of-pearl 

 workers have had various bones, especially those of the lower jaw, wrists, collar-bone, 

 etc., attacked with severe periostitis, or Inflammation of the bone's external lining 

 membrane. It is supposed that the mother-of-pearl dust contains traces of phos- 

 phorus in the form of phosphate of lime. 



In the United States "gurry" (or fish-offal) sores on the hands, wrists, and arms 

 of its fishermen are common. These wounds are caused by the poisons, chiefly putre- 

 factive, derived from fish-hooks, fish-pins, fish-scales, and from handling fish. These 

 "gurry" sores are made worse by exposure to wet, extreme cold, or excessive heat, 

 and often aggravated by dirt and poverty. 



"professional" putrefactive poisoning. 



In the Norwegian whale fisheries, after having driven the whales toward the shore, 

 they are surrounded by a net, whicli prevents them through fear returning to the 

 deeper sea. The whales are next struck with prepared putrefactive-poisoned harpoons. 

 In about twenty-four hours some of the whales begin to exhibit sign of exhaustion, 

 probably through septic or suppurative poisoning, and are hence readily captured. 

 It is then found that the harpoons are imbedded in masses of inflammatory gangren- 

 ous tissue. These harpoons are removed and carefully preserved without being wiped 

 or cleaned, to be employed for the next shoal of whales, when they are again used, 

 producing and repeating their septic or poisonous properties. 



The explanation of this rapid poisoning is due to the harpoons carrying with them 

 the germs or bacteria of an infective inflammation and inoculating the whales by setting 

 up infective or poisonous inflammation in the same way as spreading gangrene, fatal 

 erysipelas, and childbed fever. 



Nero and Domitian used special putrid preparations made from the sea hare 

 {Aplysia punctata), a kind of sea slug or snail, for secretly poisoning their enemies. 

 Similarly, some savages use dried putrid fish poisons for their arrows to kill men and 

 animals. 



PUTREFACTION. 



To satisfactorily study and intelligently understand the putrefactive processes of 

 animal matter it is sometimes necessary to compare the decomposition of meat, of game, 

 of poultry, and of fish, and even also the decompositions which occur in living and in 

 dead vegetable matters, including flowers. Hence I have considered it occasionally 

 advisable to enter into the comparative chemistry and comparative bio -chemistry of 

 putrefactive processes which occur both in living and in dead men, animals and plants, 

 without forgetting certain other facts bearing upon the question of natural food pres- 

 ervation. 



As an illustration of the power of putrefaction, even in quantities whicli probably 

 could not be weighed on even the most delicately contrived balance in the analytical 

 chemist's laboratory, let us recollect what may take place in the "putrid" sting of a 

 tilth-feeding wasp. Thus, during the summer of 1893, in various parts of the United 

 Kingdom there were several serious cases of poisoning, and sometimes fatal poisoning, 



