ccxlvi 



common in India amongst the natives born with a leprous taint. In fact> 

 it has been frequently remarked that this disease does not exist amougst 

 the Burmese. The same remark applies to the fish-and-animal-food- 

 eating Andamanese ; whilst on the other hand it is as common in India 

 amongst inland classes who do not eat fish, as those who do so. - As 

 regards Elephantiasis Arabum, there does not appear to be any stronger 

 reasoii for attributing its origin to a fish diet, than there is in regard to 

 E. Gracorum, or the true leprosy. Hamilton Buchanan observed that 

 this disease, in some parts of India, is attributed by the natives to eating 1 

 a carp, Labeo curchius, and taking large draughts of fresh milk on the 

 same day. 



427. Skin 'diseases of a low character and inveterate itch have 

 been considered to be occasioned by this form 

 ' of diet; this seems in many cases to be 

 thought so, because very poor persons residing 

 along the sea coast, and are unable to procure proper sustenance, con- 

 sume the refuse of the fish taken, which are either given them gra- 

 tuitously as worthless, or disposed of at a very cheap rate. This> 

 however, can scarcely be assumed as the sole Cause of the low forms of 

 disease (Excluding dysenteric diarrhoea, occasionally passing into 

 dysentery) from which these people suffer, which in reality are due 

 to privations, though doubtless badly-cured fish may aggravate diseases^ 

 'or render the individual more susceptible to the attacks of maladies 

 indigenous to the locality. In the badly nourished, itch or other 

 skin affections, when contracted, are generally severe, and in sea^port 

 towns are niostly perceived amongst the poverty-stricken, who consume 

 the refuse of fish in lieu of more wholesome food, which they are 

 unable to purchase. Scurvy has by some been partly attributed to a 

 fish diet. Dr. Gamack, reporting on the Convict Settlement at the 

 Andamans in 1860, observed " a very limited quantity of fresh meat 

 and fish has been occasionally procurable by the convicts generally, 

 but for the sick the supply has been more liberal, and in the scurvy 

 cases was found of the greatest benefit/' 



428. Fish wounds, or those occasioned by their spines> are by 110 

 means uncommon. They may set up poison- 



pelttf sTofdt ^^ CS ' ous symptoms, due to their having a distinctly 



poisonous character, or severe irritation 



caused by the jagged nature of the injury inflicted. Severe inflamma- 

 tion, terminating in stiffened joints^ have frequently resulted in Europe 

 from wounds caused by the spines of the weever, Trachinus vipera. 

 In some cases of injuries caused by siluroids, skates, and ray fishes, one 

 can scarcely resist believing that some species haVe the power of secre- 

 ting a direct poison, as the symptoms are often too severe to be attribut- 

 able to simple inflammation. We perceive some snakes, however, with 

 venomous, others with innocuous, saliva, and it is an interesting question 

 whether the mucous secretions of fishes may not partake of either one 

 or the other of these qualities. Dr. Giinther apparently has discovered 

 a poison gland in a fish brought from Guatemala, the Thalassophryne 

 reticulata, the secretion from which seems to arise in the mucous 

 system. The effects of some of these injuries from fish spines are 

 doubtless entirely due to the extent of the inflicted wound. Thus, at 





