M. A. Duméril on Venomous Fishes. 161 
the foregoing explanations of these phenomena to the exclusion 
of the others. We have, in fact, seen that several of them are 
entitled to equal consideration. Further, in spite of what has 
been hitherto asserted, such poisonous action is not to be attri- 
buted to any poison of a particular nature, sui generis. There 
is, in fact, no known ichthyic venom*. 
Enumeration of such Fishes as are known to be potsonous. 
1. Of these there is certainly none more to be dreaded than 
the Clupea known by the name of “‘Cailleu-tassard”’ in the French 
colonies of the Antilles, and by that of “ yellow-bill sprat ” m 
the English colonies of the same islands (Meletta thrissa, Val.). 
I have already mentioned it when speaking of the opinion ex- 
pressed by Ferguson that fishes acquire poisonous properties 
merely through having fed upon the ‘ Cailleu-tassard.? Making 
allowance for the exaggeration of this statement, we may never- 
theless regard the poison residing in the flesh of various spe- 
cies as due to the influence of this Meletta, which is indeed 
venomous to an almost incredible degree, as attested by Rob. 
Thomas (of Salisbury), who practised the medical profession in 
these colonies. He relates that this fish has, in several instances, 
been known to occasion death, with frightful convulsions, in the 
space of half an hour (Nouv. Traité de Méd. Prat., transl. by 
Hipp. Cloquet, t. 11. p.641). Death, prompt and certain, he 
says, is the consequence of a repast composed of this fish 
(p. 642)t. 
2. Another Meletta, proper to the Indian seas (M. venenosa, 
Val.), is almost equally formidable. It is probably to this spe- 
cies that Capt. Jouan refers in a letter to me, dated 1861, from 
Port de France (New Caledonia), where he says the “ Sardines,” 
as they are vulgarly called, are nearly always poisonousf{. 
* Hipp. Cloquet, in the Dict. d. Se. Nat. t. xxii. p. 550 et seq., has treated 
the present subject under the above title; but he has made use of this 
expression merely to designate poisonous effects produced by the alimentary 
use of different species, without connecting them with any special veno- 
mous properties residing in their flesh. 
[It may be as well to call attention to Dr. Giinther’s discovery of a 
poison-organ in a Batrachoid fish (Proc. Zuol. Soc. 1864, p. 155).—TR. | 
+ Can it be true, as, indeed, the negro fishermen of Guadeloupe informed 
W. Ferguson (On Poisonous Fishes of the Carribbee Islands,” Trans. 
Roy. Soc. Edinb. 1821, t. ix. p. 69), that the ‘ Cailleu-tassard’ is never 
venomous when taken in the Bay of La Basse-terre, even at the season when 
it is more particularly dangerous out of that bay, though at a very slight 
distance and along with other Clupee which cause no ill effects whatever ? 
{ He informs me, in another letter, that many fearful and sudden acci- 
dents, occurring after the occupation of New Caledonia, caused several of 
the fishes of its coast to be regarded with suspicion. He asserts that their 
