ecxliv 



suffered deleteriously from the effects of eating- them. They are mostly 

 consumed in a dry state ; certainly neither their heads nor intestines are 

 removed. Along- the Malabar Coast of India and in Ceylon, eating 

 sardines, either the Clupea Neohowii or C. melanura, has been thought to 

 occasion poisonous symptoms, but both species abound in the Anda- 

 mans and are eaten with impurity ; still I have personally witnessed 

 many cases of vomiting and purging- resembling- cholera, especially 

 about the month of October, and which could only be traced to the 

 fact that some unwholesome fish had been the cause. The Clupea 

 venenosa was found to be poisonous at the Seychelles by Dussumier, 

 but Colonel Playfair at Zanzibar considered that they " do not appear 

 to possess any such property ; on the contrary they form no incon- 

 siderable part of the daily food of the lower orders." (Alosa venenosa, 

 Fish, Zanzibar, p. 122.) Dr. Cantor observed, when remarking upon 

 the Clupea perforata, that it is found in the Straits, where it is 

 termed a sardine, and most common from June to August. Some 

 specimens procured by Mr. Lewis " were accompanied by the following 

 account of a phenomenon witnessed by that gentleman during his 

 official residence at Bencoolen. In 1822, great numbers of what 

 w^as supposed to be this identical species presented the appearance 

 of having- red eyes. Many natives, after having eaten these fishes, 

 were suddenly attacked with violent vomiting, which, in cases where 

 remedies were not immediately applied, was known within an hour 

 to terminate fatally. At the same time, such of these fishes with the 

 ordinary silver eyes were, as formerly, eaten with impunity.'''' This 

 phenomenon re-occurred the two succeeding years, and he considered 

 it probable that the poisonous fishes were shoals of C. venenosa. Any of 

 the foregoing would appear to be poisonous from some local or accidental 

 cause, as the abundance of food which may suit them but renders 

 their flesh poisonous ; but in the West Indies, the Clupea thrissa is 

 stated to be inherently so. The Clupea humeral] s is so poisonous at 

 the Antilles, due to feeding on the Physalia, that it occasionally causes 

 death in a few minutes ; even the common herring, Clupea harengus, 

 is sometimes very irritating when eaten, in the North Sea, conse- 

 cpuent on living on some minute red worm which are occasionally 

 abundant there. The Indian shad, Clupea palasah, when in season, 

 is somewhat rich, and the Burmans do not eat it during sickness, 

 or should they be suffering at the time from skin affections, or have 

 suffered from such during the few preceding months, as they affirm 

 it will aggravate it when present, and reproduce it if only recently 

 recovered from. 



423. Amongst the eels, Muranida, none appear to be reputed 



. , unwholesome, still there is no reason they 



Eels as food. i i i j. i t j • • -n 



should not become so in India as in Europe 



(see para. 418). The appearance of some is considered repulsive, whilst 



Jews and Mahomedans reject them. 



424. In the Sclerodermatous family, species of the Batistes are 



„ , . eaten by the Andamanese, but none of the 



Scleroderun as food, or noison- n * • r t l • 



Ustracions, so tar as 1 can ascertain, are em- 

 ployed as food. It is curious that the 

 Ostracion cornutum and the Balistes vetula are said to be very poisonous 



