THE ANNALS 
MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 
[THIRD SERIES. ] 
No. 117. SEPTEMBER 1867. 
XX.—On Venomous Fishes. By M. Avcuste Dumérit*. 
THERE are numerous instances on record of poisoning due to 
the use of certain fishes as food: the manner in which such 
venomous properties are acquired has long been matter of re- 
search. 
Causes of the Poisonous effects produced by the Flesh of Fishes. 
I 
It is evident that the nature of the waters in which they live 
must exercise a considerable influence upon the qualities of the 
flesh. 
A. Waters in which textile plants have been allowed to rot, or 
in which carcasses have become decomposed—all such, in fact, 
as have been corrupted by the presence of matter in a state of 
putrefaction will be capable of rendering unfit for food any fish 
which may inhabit them. This was the case with the waters of 
the Loire in 1794, when, on account of the number of persons 
drowned at Nantes, the police were obliged to forbid not only | 
drinking of the river, but even fishing in it. 
B. Another source of such taint is to be apprehended from 
the discharge of the refuse of different manufactures into the 
waters. 
Il. 
Herrings, both salted and smoked, sometimes occasion acci- 
dents of this kind, when, from long keeping, the ingredients 
employed in their preservation have lost their efficacy. 
Sometimes deleterious effects are to be traced to the imperfect 
or bad curing of such fish. In other cases of this nature the 
* Translated, from the ‘ Annales de la Soc. Linnéenne du Département 
de Maine-et-Loire, 8™° année, 1866, by Arthur W. E. O’Shaughnessy. 
Ann. & Mag. N.-Hist. Ser.3. Vol. xx. 11 
