The Days of a Man 



ni902 



Poisonous 

 fishes 



Vicious 

 mosqui- 

 toes 



to make some return in kind. In the tropics every- 

 where, as already explained, certain fishes are at times 

 poisonous, causing a disorder known in Cuba as 

 ciguatera ^ and apparently due to a specific alkaloid 

 which produces results comparable to strychnine poi- 

 soning. At Pago Pago I prepared a series of water- 

 color sketches of all the local species known to be 

 poisonous, and of others under suspicion. As a 

 further aid to identification of the poisonous kinds I 

 distributed a circular of information. This whole 

 subject is much in need of investigation, but certain 

 facts are well verified. In temperate regions no fishes 

 cause ciguatera; in the tropics som_e forms are always 

 dangerous — Tetraodon hispidus of Hawaii, for ex- 

 ample, a puffer known to the people as maki-maki, 

 or "death-death.'* 



Kellogg issued a similar leaflet in regard to the 

 peril from mosquitoes, which in those islands carry 

 Filaria, a worm-shaped microbe which gets into the 

 lymphatic system and produces the horrible hard 

 swelling known as elephantiasis, sometimes called 

 "piano-leg" because the lower limbs often increase 

 to an enormous size. Besides the Filaria^ certain 

 tropical mosquitoes — Culex fatigans and probably a 

 Stegomyia — are supposed to carry also the minute 

 organism called Plasmamceba, which causes the 

 dengue. 



The third matter in which we were privileged to 

 play a somewhat helpful role was of a wholly different 

 character. As already indicated, the Tutuilans felt 

 they had a serious grievance against our government. 

 For, being greatly pleased by the adjustment which 



1 This malady must not be confused with ptomaine poisoning, which may 

 follow the eating of decaying fish of any species. See note, Vol. I, page 286. 



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