M. A. Duméril on Venomous Fishes. 155 
naturalist experienced the extent of its unwholesomeness by 
many very serious accidents. He says (Ichth. de Nice, p. 350) 
that its pernicious qualities arise from its feeding on a species 
of Medusa common in the Mediterranean, and belonging to 
the genus Stephanomia, which possesses acrid and irritating 
properties to an extreme degree. Valenciennes remarks with 
reason upon the strangeness of the fact that the internal mem- 
brane of the digestive tube of the fish may be brought into 
contact with so caustic a substance (the pernicious qualities of 
which are by no means destroyed by such contact, since they 
are capable of being communicated afterwards) without any ill 
effect upon the organs of the animal itself. 
In many cases, then, such poisoning may be attributed to the 
kind of food which the fish partakes of: we cannot, however, 
consider this to be the sole cause. There are, in fact, venomous 
species where no polypes are to be found; and, on the other 
hand, some which are caught in islands like Marie-Galante, 
surrounded by these aggregated zoophytes, are not more dan- 
_ gerous than those from other quarters. Further, if such fishes 
do indeed, as is reported, retain the odour of the coral, it is not 
always because they have eaten of it, but merely from their 
having existed in its vicinity. 
I must not here omit to mention the experiments made by 
Moreau de Jonnés with a view to obtaining light upon this 
subject. He placed in a basin occupied by species of fish which 
are considered capable of becoming venomous some Aplysia, 
sea-stars, medusz, and portions of polypes; he found that this 
food was exceedingly repulsive to them, and that, after a long 
time, although having no other sort of nourishment, they had 
left them altogether intact. M. Moreau de Jonnés then forced 
them to eat a considerable quantity of the acrid substance of 
these animals, mixing and disguising it in farinaceous paste ; 
and, thus involuntarily nourished upon that which they had 
previously rejected, they caused no sort of ill effect when eaten 
at table*. 
Amongst the substances from.feeding upon which fishes are 
supposed to derive their baneful properties, are the fruits of the 
Manchineel (Hippomane mancinella, Linn.), which are held in 
great dread in the Antilles ; however, as M. Moreau de Jonnés 
* Are the poisonous qualities of certain fishes of the Antilles attributable 
to their preying upon the abundant and much-dreaded Meletta thrissa,Val.? 
Ferguson (“‘ On the Poisonous Fishes of the Caribbee Islands,” in Trans. 
Roy. Soc. Edinburgh, 1821, t. ix. p. 76) supports this notion. He says that, 
in localities where this Meletta abounds, accidents are more frequent ; 
while they are almost unknown in those portions of the Antilles where it 
is rare. 
11* 
