156 M. A. Dumeril on Venomous Fishes. 



asks^ ill his memoir already cited (pp. 19-26), is it ascertained 

 that fishes really eat these fruits? Searching in their digestive 

 organs with the utmost care, during his stay in Martinique, 

 for the nuts of this euphorbiaceous fruit (the monospermic cells 

 of which are rendered so remarkable by their minute pointed 

 and sharp apophyses), he never succeeded in finding any. 

 Judging, moreover, from the great quantities of these fruits 

 which find their way into the sea, the margin of which is often 

 covered with them, would not such accidents, resulting from the 

 consumption offish caught in such waters, be even more frequent 

 than they are ? 



IV. 



In some countries it is customary to cast noxious plants into 

 the water, in order to render the fisheries more rapid and abun- 

 dant. The fish, coming in crowds to the surface to die, are 

 taken without difficulty in considerable numbers in a very short 

 space of time. Many procedures of this kind are to be severely 

 condemned as really capable of rendering the fishes poisonous. 

 The fruits of the Cocculus suberosus, and many shrubs of the 

 same genus confounded under the common name of " Coque du 

 Levant," are more particularly cTiiployed for this purpose. The 

 Indians bruise them, mix them with a species of crab, and make 

 them into pellets of the size of a cherry, which the animals take 

 with great avidity. The eff"ect is very immediate. 



M. P. F. G. Boullay, in a dissertation on the natural and che- 

 mical history of the " Coque du Levant," published in 1818, 

 made known the use of this substance as the basis of several 

 receipts current in Europe. Fish taken with the aid of such a 

 bait putrefy very readily, and, if not cooked or prepared imme- 

 diately, may become venomous, as shown by the experiments of 

 M. Goupil de Nemours, wiio caused certain animals to eat the 

 flesh of fishes poisoned with this substance (Bullet. Fac. de Med. 

 de Paris et de la Soc. etablie dans son sein, t. i. 1807, p. 143). 



I ought, however, to observe that there must still remain 

 some uncertainty as to the reality of the accidents attributed to 

 the use of such as food, since the " Coque du Levant " is fre- 

 quently employed in India in fisheries whose product is intended 

 for consumption. 



A further example of the innocuousness of fishes subjected to 

 the influence of certain poisonous plants is furnished by M. de 

 Castelnau (Voy. dans les parties centr. de I'Amer. du Sud, 

 1855, Paris, pp. vi-viii). An extremely plentiful supply of fishes 

 having been obtained on the great lake near the Rio Sarayacu, 

 in the Missions of the Ucayale, by means of the poison residing 

 in the stems of the Barbasco or Necklace-wood {Jacquinia m^mil- 



