164 M. A. Dumeiil on Venomous Fishes. 



officers was already over when the bell called the men to supper; 

 and a reserve of the products of the fishery had been appro- 

 priated for their breakfast on the morrow : to this circumstance 

 they owed their safety. 



13-16. I have already made known the serious consequences 

 which sometimes attend the introduction into the digestive pas- 

 sages of the flesh of the Bonito {Thynnus pelamys) when not 

 dressed immediately after it has been taken from the water. 

 This is not the only Scomberoid which should be used with 

 caution. Thus the ' Tassard guarapucu' {Cybium cahalla, 

 Cuv. & Val. t. viii. p. 188) is indicated by Plee as being some- 

 times poisonous. Ferguson (" On Poisonous Fishes of the Car- 

 ribbee Islands/' Trans. Roy. Soc. Edinb. 1821, t. ix. p. 66) has 

 given an account of a case of poisoning which occurred at St. 

 Domingo, in the house of the Quartermaster- General, when 

 every one present had partaken of a fine individual of this spe- 

 cies. Each person was variously afiected, according to the 

 quantity taken. The negro cook died ; and the wife of the 

 Quarter-master, having dined almost exclusively on the fish, 

 experienced the effects of the poison for several months. 



The species of Caranx called C. Plumieri, Cuv. & Val. t. ix. 

 p. 65, which is very similar to the mackerel in taste, and must 

 not be confounded with the false Caranx (C fallax) already 

 spoken of as being always dangerous food, is also at times pro- 

 ductive of harm. This is indicated by the bones displaying a 

 red hue; and, according to Lherminier, the venomous property 

 is then so virulent that the fish is used as a poisoned bait for 

 rats. There is, in fact, no species of this family, even to the 

 tunny {Thynnus vulgaris, so prized for the excellent quality of 

 its flesh in all parts of the Mediterranean), which should not be 

 subjected to strict scrutiny before being offered for sale ; for 

 there are on I'ecord various instances of persons sufl'ering more 

 or less severely from having eaten of this fish too long after its 

 capture. M. de Martens, .in the account of his Voyage to Venice 

 (t. ii. pp. 432 & 433), relates the prudent administrative measures 

 which, in that city, restrict the sale of the tunny to within four- 

 and-twenty hours after its capture. 



17 & 18. Among the Clupeidse, the Anchovy of the Indian 

 seas (named Engi-avlis balama, Cuv. & Val., or Anchovy of 

 Forskal), like the Meletta venenosa already cited as an original 

 inhabitant of those seas, is not less formidable than this latter 

 species, when, in preparing it, the precaution of taking away 

 the head and intestines has been neglected. M. Dussumier, in 

 his Catalogue, says that one only of these anchovies will cause 

 the death of a man. 



To this list of fishes which are poisonous others might cer- 



