ccxlvi 



common in Tndia amongst the natives boni witli a leprous taint. In fact, 

 it has been IVuijnently remaiked tliat this disease does not exist amongst 

 the Burmese. The same remark applies to the fish-and-animal-food- 

 eating Andamanese ; whilst on the other hand it is as common in India 

 Dmongst inland classes who do not eat fish, as those who do bo. As 

 VegarcTs Elephantiasis Arabum, there does not appear to be any stronger 

 reason for attributing its origin to a fish diet, than there is in regard to 

 E. Qrcecorum, or the true leprosy. Hamilton Buchanan observed that 

 this disease, in some parts of India, is attributed by the natives to eating 

 a carp, Labeo curehius, and taking large diaughts of fresh milk on the 

 same day. 



427. Skin diseases of a loto character and inveterate itch have 



„ . , , been considered to be occasioned by this form 



Bliin Qiscnaes nml scurvy at- p i ■ . . i • ■ , i 



ttibutcd to a Imd fiah diet. ^^ 'I'^t ; this secms in many cases to be 



thought 80, because very poor persons residing 

 along the sea coast, and are unable to procure proper sustenance, con- 

 sume the refuse of the fish taken, which are either given them gra- 

 tuitously as worthless, or disposed of at a very cheap rate. This, 

 however, can scarcely be assumed as the sole cause of the low forms of 

 disease (excluding dysenteric diarrhoea, occasioually passing into 

 dysentery) from which these people suffer, which in reality are due 

 to privations, though doubtless badly-cured fish may aggravate diseases, 

 or render the individual more susceptible to the attacks of maladies 

 indigenous to the locality. In the badly nourished, itch or other 

 skin aflPections, when contracted, are generally severe, and in sea-port 

 towns are mostly perceived amongst the poverty-stricken, who consume 

 the reftise of fish in lieu of more wholesome food, which they are 

 unable to purchase. Scurvy has by some been partly attributed to a 

 fish diet. Dr. Gamack, reporting on the Convict Settlement at the 

 Andamans in 1860, observed — "a very limited quantity of fresh meat 

 and fish has been occasionally procurable by the convicts generally, 

 but for the sick the supply has been more liberal, and in the scurvy 

 cases was found of the greatest benefit.'' 



428. FisA wounds, or those occasioned by their spines, are by no 



means uncommon. They may set up poison- 



pelaiy of [roU^: '"""' "■ 0"? symptoms, due to their having a distinctly 



poisonous char.acter, or severe irritation 

 caused by the jagged nature of the injury inflicted. Severe inflamma- 

 tion, terminating in stiffened joints, have frequently resulted in Europe 

 from wounds caused by the spines of the weever, IVachinus vipera. 

 In some cases of injuries caused by siluroids, skates, and ray fishes, one 

 can scarcely resist believing that some species have the power of secre- 

 ting a direct poison, as the symptoms are often too severe to be attribut- 

 able to simple inflammation. We perceive some snakes, however, with 

 venomous, others with innocuous, saliva, and it is an interesting question 

 whether the mucous secretions of fishes may not partake of either one 

 or the other of these qualities. Dr. Giiuther apparently has discovered 

 a poison gland in a fish brouglit from Guatemala, the Thalassophryne 

 reticulata, the secretion from which seems to arise in the mucous 

 system. The edccis of some of those injuries from fish spines an; 

 doubtless entirely duo to the extent of the inflicted wound. Thus, at 



