SPINOUS FISHES. 301 



water-side, without any apparent cause : yet still they are animals 

 of all others the most vivacious, and they often live and subsist upon 

 such substances as are poisonous to the more perfect classes of Ani 

 mated Nature. 



It is not easy to determine whether the poisonous qualities which 

 many of them are found to possess, either when they wound our bo- 

 dies externally with their spines, or when they are unwarily eaten at 

 our tables, arise from this cause. That numbers of fishes inflict 

 poisonous wounds, in the opinion of many, cannot be doubted : The 

 concurrent testimony of mankind, they think sufficient to contradict 

 any reasonings upon this head, taken from- anatomical inspection. 

 The great pain that is felt from the sting given by the back fin of the 

 weaver, bears no proportion to the smallness of the instrument that 

 inflicts the wound. How the poison is preserved, or how it is con- 

 veyed by the animal, it is not in our power to perceive ; but its ac- 

 \ual existence has been often attested by painful experience. In 

 this instance we must decline conjecture, satisfied with history. 



The fact of their being poisonous when eaten, is equally notorious ; 

 and the cause equally inscrutable. My poor worthy friend, Dr. 

 Grainger, who resided for many years at St. Christopher's, assured 

 me, that of the fish caught, of the same kind, at one end of the 

 island, some wr.e the best and most wholesome in the world ; while 

 others taken. ai a different end, were always dangerous, and most 

 commonly fatal. We have a paper in the Philosophical Transactions, 

 giving an account of the poisonous qualities of those found at New- 

 Providence, -ie of the Bahama islands. The author assures us, that 

 the greatest pa. 1 of the fish of that dreary coast, are all of a deadly 

 nature ; their smallest effects being to bring on a terrible pain in the 

 joints, which, if terminating favourably, leaves the patient withou 

 any appetite for several days after. It is not those of the most de- 

 formed figure, or the mo?t frightful to look at, that are alone to be 

 dreaded ; all kinds, at different times, are alike dangerous ; and the 

 same species which has this day served for nourishment, is the next 

 if tried, found to be fatal ! 



This noxious quality has given rise to much speculation, and many 

 conjectures. Some have supposed it to arise from the fishes on these 

 shores eating of the machineel apple, adeauiy vegetable poison, that 

 sometimes grows pendant over the sea ; but the quantity of those 

 trees growing in this manner, bears no proportion to the extensive 

 infection of the fish. Labat has ascribed it to their eating the gaily 

 fish, which is itself most potently poisonous ; but this only removes 

 our wonder a little farther back ; for it may be asked, with as just a 

 iause for curiosity, how comes the gaily fish itself to procure its nox- 

 ious qualities? Others have ascribed the poison of these fishes to 

 their feeding upon copperas beds : but 1 do not know of any copperas 

 mines found in America. In short, as we cannot describe the alembic 

 by which the rattlesnake distils its malignity, nor the process by 

 which the scorpion, that lives among roses, converts their sweets to 

 venom, so we cannot discover the manner by which fishes become 

 thus dangerous ; and it is well for us of Europe that we can thua 

 wonder in security. It is certain that, with us, if fishes, such as carp 



