163 M. A. Dumeril 07i Venomous Fishes. 



3. In 1853, Dr. Pappe (Synopsis of the Edible Fishes of the 

 Cape of Good Hope, p. 7 et seq.) drew attention to some serious 

 accidents occasioned by the use as food of a Tetraodon which he 

 referred to the T. Honkenyi of Bloch. This creature, he says, is 

 the terror of the fishermen and inhabitants of the Cape. Many 

 cases of death are cited as having been caused by it in the 

 colony. Thus, at a period already remote, in the time of the 

 war, when Muizenburg and its environs was occupied by the 

 English troops, some soldiers perished from having imprudently 

 eaten of this fish. In 1856 a ship-boy belonging to a Danish 

 trading-ship, in 1845 two sailors attached to a Dutch vessel 

 then at anchor in the Bay of Simon, and in 1846 a man belong- 

 ing to the French corvette ' Oise ' underwent a similar fate. 



By reason of the frequency of these occurrences. Dr. Pappe 

 expresses wonder that Government has not, with a view to pre- 

 venting them, inserted amongst the regulations of the port an 

 absolute interdiction of the use of so formidable a species. 



4. In 1858, M. Fonssagrives, Physician in Chief to the Marine 

 and Professor at the Faculty of Medicine at Montpellier, 

 completed, with the aid of documents furnished by Dr. 

 Praeger, the remarks and observations relative to poisonous 

 fishes commenced in his 'Traite d' Hygiene Navale/ he calls 

 particular attention to the external characters of the Spotted 

 Tetraodon (Geneion maculutum, Bibr.). So frequent are the 

 accidents caused by it, that ships anchoring at the Cape are now 

 warned against it by the local authority (Bull. Acad. Med. 

 t. xxiii. p. 1059). 



Thus the desire of Dr. Pappe relative to administrative mea- 

 sures has been realized in the colony. 



To such instances as we have already cited Dr. Praeger has 

 added another — that of two sailors in the Dutch brig ' Postilion,' 

 who, in 1845, succumbed to the baneful influence of this fish, 

 one of them having eaten only the liver. 



Other Tetraodons undoubtedly produce similar effects. There 

 is one in New Caledonia, not designated specifically, which is 

 particularly terrible, since Captain Jouan [loc. cit. p. 8) has seen 

 5 grammes of its flesh occasion the death of a pig with dreadful 

 convulsions. 



dangerous properties are due to their feeding on medusae and polypes, and 

 more especially on the coral when it is " in flower." 



A very grave instance of poisoning, fatal in the case of three of the 

 persons, had occurred previously at Port Balade (New Caledonia), in 

 1852, the parties concerned being sailors belonging to the corvette ' Catinat,' 

 who had eaten of the venomous Meletta. A very particular account of 

 this case has been given by M. Lacroix, surgeon-major to the corvette. 

 (Revue Coloniale, 2c se'rie. Mars 1856, pp. 257-265.) 



