156 M. A. Duméril on Venomous Fishes. 
asks, in his memoir already cited (pp. 19-26), is it ascertained 
that fishes really eat these fruits? Searching in their digestive 
organs with the utmost care, during his stay in Martinique, 
for the nuts of this euphorbiaceous fruit (the monospermie cells 
of which are rendered so remarkable by their minute pointed 
and sharp apophyses), he never succeeded in finding any. 
Judging, moreover, from the great quantities of these fruits 
which find their way into the sea, the margin of which is often 
covered with them, would not such accidents, resulting from the 
consumption of fish caught in such waters, be even more frequent 
than they are? 
IV. 
In some countries it is customary to east noxious plants into 
the water, in order to render the fisheries more rapid and abun- — 
dant. The fish, coming in crowds to the surface to die, are 
taken without difficulty i in considerable numbers in a very short 
space of time. Many procedures of this kind are to be severely 
condemned as really capable of rendering the fishes poisonous. 
The fruits of the Cocculus suberosus, and many shrubs of the 
same genus confounded under the common name of “ Coque du 
Levant,” are more particularly employed for this purpose. The 
Indians bruise them, mix them with a species of crab, and make 
them into pellets of the size of a cherry, which the animals take 
with great avidity. The effect is very immediate. 
M. P. F.G. Boullay, in a dissertation on the natural and che- 
mical history of the “Coque du Levant,” published in 1818, 
made known the use of this substance as the basis of several 
receipts current in Europe. Fish taken with the aid of such a 
bait putrefy very readily, and, if not cooked or prepared imme- 
diately, may become venomous, as shown by the experiments of 
M. Goupil de Nemours, who caused certain animals to eat the 
flesh of fishes poisoned with this substance (Bullet. Fac. de Méd. 
de Paris et de la Soc. établie dans son sein, t. i. 1807, p. 1438). 
I ought, however, to observe that there must still remain 
some uncertainty as to the reality of the accidents attributed to 
the use of such as food, since the “ Coque du Levant” is fre- 
quently employed in India in fisheries whose product is intended 
for consumption. 
A further example of the innocuousness of fishes subjected to 
the influence of certain poisonous plants is furnished by M. de 
Castelnau (Voy. dans les parties centr. de ’Amér. du Sud, 
1855, Paris, pp. vi-vili). An extremely plentiful supply of fishes 
having been obtained on the great lake near the Rio Sarayacu, 
in the Missions of the Ueayale, by means of the poison residing 
in the stems of the Barbasco or Necklace-wood (Jacquinia armil- 
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