POISONOUS FISH 157 



complexity, I'oi- llicy aic dificsfcd by pepsin and trypsin, but, not by 

 erepsin.** 



There are also other tisli wliose botUes, even wlien perfectly fresh, 

 contain very powerful poisons. Savtschenko,^ in his elaborate atlas 

 of th(! poisonous fish describes a nunibei- of cases of poisoning by the 

 famous "parrot fish" of Japan (Tc/rof/ow), in which the poison seems 

 to be developed and contained in the ovaries and eggs, and therefore 

 the degree of toxicity varies with the season of the year in which the 

 fish is taken.'" Poisoning by these fish is very violent, the symptoms 

 appearing quickly, and the cases are divided into two groups b\' Savt- 

 scheidvo. as the algid, or choleriform, and the gastro-intestinal type. 

 The symptoms of the algid form appear almost immediately after 

 eating the fish, and consist of pain in the stomach, with great fear and 

 distress; soon diarrhea and vomiting set in, with cramps in the arms 

 and legs; this terminates in collapse, coma, and death from either re- 

 spiratory or cardiac paralysis. The entire course of the process may 

 be but ten to twenty minutes, or it may be as many hours. On 

 account of the localization of the poison in the eggs and ovaries not 

 all persons who eat the fish are poisoned, and not all who are poisoned 

 receive a fatal dose. In the gastro-intestinal form the symptoms appear 

 later, consist chiefly of gastro-intestinal disturbances resembling more 

 closely ptomain poisoning, and the prognosis is not so bad as in the 

 algid form. 



The pathological anatomj^ of this form of poisoning has not been 

 carefully studied, but no characteristic or striking anatomical changes 

 have been noted in the bodies examined. Tahara" has described a 

 toxic body, tetrodo-toxin, isolated from the ovaries of Tetrodon.'^^ 

 The purest preparations had a minimum lethal dose of 0.0025 to 0.004 

 gm. per kilo, and a provisional formula of CieHaiNOie was given to it. 

 Tetrodotoxin is neither protein nor alkaloid, nor yet a protamin. 

 It anesthetizes motor nerve endings and central nervous system, 

 paralyzes both motor and sensory nerves, increases the excitability of 

 muscle (Itakura)'^ and paralyzes sympathetic nerve endings (Ishihara). 



In this connection may be mentioned the peculiar erysipelas-like 

 lesions caused by bites of crabs, which indicates the formation of some 

 toxic product by these crustaceans.'* Gilchrist'^ obtained a history 

 of l)ites or injuries by crabs in 323 of 329 cases of "erysipeloid." 



s Konstanzoff and Manoiloff, Wien. klin. Woch., 1914 (27), 883. 



* "Atlas des Poissons Veneneu.x," St. Petersburg, 1886 (literature). 



^^ A Brazilian fish, Spheroides testudineus, has extremely toxic tissues, extract 

 of 0.01-0.02 gm. of liver killing a guinea pig in a few minutes (Fonseca, Brazil- 

 Medico, 1917 (31), 97). The ovaries of the American gar are also said to be toxic 

 (Greene et al, Amer. Jour. Phv.s., 1918 (45), 558). 



'1 Biochem. Zeit., 1910 (30), 2.56. 



'2 Arch. exp. Path. u. Pharm., 1890 (26), 401 and 453. 



'3 Mitt. med. P\ak. Univ. Tokio, 1917 (17), 455. 



'^ The livers of the spiny lobster (genus Pouvus) have been found to be very 

 toxic (Nakano, Jap. Ztschr! Dermatol., 1917 (17), 1). 



'^ Jour. Cutaneous Diseases, November, 1904. 



