88 Papers Jrom the Department of Marine Biology. 



thing when he says that "the colonists beheve [that it] is owing to its 

 feeding on submerged 'copper-banks.' " 



Poey (1856-58) writes that its flesh is excellent, but is forbidden to 

 be sold in the markets because it is sometimes dangerous, and gravely 

 affects the health of those who eat it at such times. The poisoning 

 caused by fish is called Ciguatera and the best antidote for it is the juice 

 of the citron. He then adds that such poisonings are rare but serious 

 when they do happen, especially when caused by eating the picuda. 

 Last of all he naively concludes that ''One may eat it with full security 

 if one will in advance try it on a cat." He adds that it is the belief of 

 the fishermen that the fish is unsuitable for food if the roots of its teeth 

 are blackish, but that he has no first-hand knowledge of the matter. 



Dumeril (1867) has gone very thoroughly into the matter of poison- 

 ing from eating fishes. He quotes a Dr. Court, a practitioner on the 

 island of Trinidad, that the smaller barracuda species is harmless, as 

 are small individuals of any fish held to be poisonous. The great 

 sphjTsena is often very poisonous. In addition to the teeth-liver tests, 

 a new one is here gi^^en : 



"When a silver spoon or coin, placed in the vessel in which the fish is being 

 cooked, does not become blackened, the flesh may be eaten without fear." 



Dumeril takes no stock in the copper-bed theory, but does suggest 

 another cause for the poisoning. A Dr. Guyon, ''sanitary inspector 

 of troops at INIartinique," communicated to Dumeril some considerable 

 data and: "According to him the real cause is a commencement of 

 decay in the flesh of the fish" [accompanied by a giving off of H2S as 

 shown by the silver coin test of the preceding paragraph] ; and Dumeril 

 adds: "This opinion I also share." Here we have the first definite 

 statement for our fish of what later has come to be known as the pto- 

 maine theory of fish poisoning. 



The prejudice against this fish seems to exist to-day throughout the 

 West Indies. It is, however, a good food-fish. In our mess at the sta- 

 tion we frequently ate S. barracuda. The small forms 18 to 20 inches or 

 thereabouts, were excellent. Fish No. 3 of the table (page 58), 30.5 

 inches long, was pronounced by the mess to have a good flavor, some- 

 what Hke that of a flounder. Larger and older fish are likely to have 

 coarse flesh, rather oily, and a somewhat characteristic odor. Such 

 were used only for shark bait. 



Temminck and Schlegel (1850) say that Sphyrcena obtusata was fished 

 for in the bay of Nagasaki, Japan, where it was regarded as a delicious 

 food by the Japanese. While for S. guachancho, Guichenot (1853) 

 quotes Ramon de la Sagra that its flesh is savory and excellent for the 

 table, and unlike that of the becuna, is never poisonous and hence may 

 be eaten without danger of Ciguatera. Day (1865) adds similar testi- 

 mony for the Indian form, S. jello, when he says that it is sometimes 

 eaten by Europeans though not particularly esteemed. 



