Cases were also reported in ^rtiioh headaohes, dizziness, and so forth were 



Hexperienoed. 



There were oases in which the patient, before dying, suffered a neinrous 

 disturbance, as if he were going mad, and threshed around in the bed (in several 

 examples where the dokuutsubo [ Gymnothorax flavimarginatus ] was eaten). No cats 

 or mice were observed behaving in this way when they died, most of them cfying 

 stretched out on their sides (photograph 3 and 5). 



Mild cases recover completely in frcm 10 to 24 hours. In those which have 

 eaten strongly toxic fish with grave symptoms resulting, sensory impairment 

 sometimes persists for a week or 10 days. 



Some persons who had eaten dokuhi raa ji [Caranx melampygus ] and ohagurohata 

 [Cephalopholis argus ] reported that rheumatism and nervous diseases, which they~ 

 had had previously, were cured by the experience. 



[page 116] Section 2 Treatment 



The best treatment is an emetic administered Immediately after eating. 

 Washing out the stomach is also effective. Where some time has passed, a lax- 

 ative should give good results, and, as a treateient for paralysis, stimulants emd 

 drugs which stinulate the heart will probably be effective. 



The following are some popular remedies. In these areas where many species 

 of poisonous fish occur, the residents always have antidotes ready, and the most 

 commonly used one is a plant called monpanoki , the scientific name of which is 

 Messersohmidia argentea Linne'^ (Fig. 72). 



The areas in the Marianas and Marshalls where the writer made this study 

 are separated by thousands of kilometers of ocean, yet, in spite of the fact that 

 the natives do not travel back and forth betwreen the that the languages are 

 altogether different, and that Japanese fishermen do not operate in the area and 

 consequently could not have taught them its use, the same parts of the same 

 plant are used in the same way in both areas. 



In Okinawa, also, the identical plant, there called hamasoki or meganenoki 

 (because the wood is used for the frames of diving goggles), grows wild along 

 the shore, and the custom exists of roasting the fried leaves and the bark of 

 the trunk and using them as an antidote for fish-poisoning. Fishermen from 

 Okinawa operating in the South Seas area are said always to carry in their boats 

 a bundle of the stems of this plant, which grows wild everywhere in the area, 

 cut into about one foot lengths and bound together like firewood. 



The Marshallese natives call this plant gannatto . In this area, too, it 

 grows wild along the shore and is easy to obtain, ^ese people pound up the 

 raw leaves with coral and eat them without further preparation. On some islands 

 they are said to gnaw the bark off the stems. Some of the Japanese fishermen 

 roast the leaves before using them. 



The monpanoki grows abundantly everywhere around the shores of the islands, 

 and there is probably no area in the South Seas where poisonous fish occur 



59 



