164 M. A. Duméril on Venomous Fishes. 
officers was already over when the bell called the men to supper; 
and a reserve of the products of the fishery had been appro- 
priated for their breakfast on the morrow: to this circumstance 
they owed their safety. 
13-16. I have already made known feat serious consequences 
which sometimes attend the introduction into the digestive pas- 
sages of the flesh of the Bonito (Thynnus pelamys) when not 
dressed immediately after it has been taken from the water. 
_ This is not the only Scomberoid which should be used with 
caution. Thus the ‘Tassard guarapucu’ (Cybium caballa, 
Cuv. & Val. t. vill. p. 188) is indicated by Plée as being some- 
times poisonous. Ferguson (“On Poisonous Fishes of the Car- 
ribbee Islands,” Trans. Roy. Soc. Edinb. 1821, t. ix. p. 66) has 
given an account of a case of poisoning which occurred at St. 
Domingo, in the house of the Quartermaster-General, when 
every one present had partaken of a fine individual of this spe- 
cies. Each person was variously affected, according to the 
quantity taken. The negro cook died; and the wife of the 
Quarter-master, having dined almost exclusively on the fish, 
experienced the effects of the poison for several months. 
The species of Caranz called C. Plumieri, Cuv. & Val. t. ix. 
p. 65, which is very similar to the mackerel in taste, and must 
not be confounded with the false Caranx (C. fallax) already 
spoken of as being always dangerous food, is also at times pro- 
ductive of harm. This is indicated by the bones displaying a 
red hue; and, according to Lherminier, the venomous property 
is then so virulent that the fish is used as a poisoned bait for 
rats. There is, in fact, no species of this family, even to the 
tunny (Zhynnus vulgaris, so prized for the excellent quality of 
its flesh in all parts of the Mediterranean), which should not be 
subjected to strict scrutiny before being offered for sale; for 
there are on record various instances of persons suffering more 
or less severely from having eaten of this fish too long after its 
capture. M. de Martens, in the account of his Voyage to Venice 
(t. il. pp. 432 & 433), relates the prudent administrative measures 
which, in that city, restrict the sale of the tunny to within four- 
and-twenty hours after its capture. 
- 17 & 18. Among the Clupeide, the Anchovy of the Indian 
seas (named Engraulis belama, Cuv. & Val., or Anchovy of 
Forskal), like the Meletta venenosa already cited as an original 
inhabitant of those seas, is not less formidable than this latter 
species, when, in preparing it, the precaution of taking away 
the head and intestines has been neglected. M. Dussumier, in 
his Catalogue, says that one only of these anchovies will cause 
the death of a man. 
To this list of fishes which are poisonous others might cer- 
