THE ANNALS 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



[THIRD SERIES.] 

 No. 117. SEPTEMBER 1867. 



XX. — On Venomous Fishes. By M. Augusts Dumkril*. 



There are numerous instances on record of poisoning due to 

 the use of certain fishes as food : the manner in which such 

 venomous properties are acquired has long been matter of re- 

 search. 



Causes of the Poisonous effects produced by the Flesh of Fishes. 



I. 



It is evident that the nature of the waters in which they live 

 must exercise a considerable influence upon the qualities of the 

 flesh. 



A. Waters in which textile plants have been allowed to rot^ or 

 in which carcasses have become decomposed — all such, in fact, 

 as have been corrupted by the presence of matter in a state of 

 putrefaction will be capable of rendering unfit for food any fish 

 which may inhabit them. This was the case with the waters of 

 the Loire in 1794, when, on account of the number of persons 

 drowned at Nantes, the police were obliged to forbid not only 

 drinking of the river, but even fishing in it. 



B. Another source of such taint is to be apprehended from 

 the discharge of the refuse of diff^erent manufactures into the 

 waters. 



II. 



Herrings, both salted and smoked, sometimes occasion acci- 

 dents of this kind, when, from long keeping, the ingredients 

 employed in their preservation have lost their eflScacy. 



Sometimes deleterious effects are to be traced to the imperfect 

 or bad curing of such fish. In other cases of this nature the 



* Translated, from the ' Annales de la Soc. Linnr'enne du Departeraent 

 de Maine-et-Loire,' 8™*= annee, 1866, by Arthur W. E. O'Shaughnessy. 



Ann. t^ Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 3. Vol. xx. 1 1 



