M.A. Duméril on Venomous Fishes. 165 
tainly be added; but the scientific determination of many is at 
present so uncertain that the mere mention of them would be 
of very little utility. 
Accidents occasioned by the use of poisonous kinds of Fishes. 
The preceding details have made known some of the sym- 
ptoms of this species of poisoning. Their similarity in every case 
is remarkable. Many of them, it is true, especially those which 
characterize more properly the graver stages of functional affec- 
tion, may be absent when the result is not destined to be fatal ; 
but these symptoms, variable in their intensity, are constantly 
the same. 
First of all supervenes dizziness, obscuring of the vision, and 
giddiness. To these feelings are constantly added palpitation 
of the heart, and a sensation of weight and heat in the sto- 
mach and entire abdomen. At the same time the pulse be- 
comes slower and feebler, and the patient is soon obliged to 
resort to a horizontal position, Then commence the urticary 
symptoms so commonly attendant upon poisoning by means of 
mussels, and the essential character of which is the appearance 
on the face and on different parts of the body of numerous 
slight elevations, red or white blotches of irregular form and 
variable dimensions, resembling the blisters produced by the 
sting of nettles, and ‘surrounded by a ring of matter of an almost 
crimson hue. The palms of the hands and soles of the feet are 
more particularly the seat of a sensation of burning, the con- 
comitant of eruption. ‘This is accompanied, according to the 
testimony of Thomas (of Salisbury) (Traité Méd. Prat., transl. 
by H. Cloquet, t. ii. p. 643), by a tingling of the hands when 
these are immersed in water—a certain indication, as he remarks, 
of the true nature of the malady. 
The sensation of tingling was the culminating symptom of a 
ease of poisoning observed by M. Gasquet, and of which Dr. 
Roux, junr., of Brignoles, furnished an account to the Société 
Imp. de Médecine de Marseille, prefacing the same by certain 
remarks on the poisonous properties of fishes (Bull. des Trav. 
of that Society, 1860, pp. 97-116*). “The palms of the hands 
and soles of the feet, ” says M. Gasquet, “ were the seat of pains 
such as might be produced by the points of needles heated in 
flame. This tingling, which was unaccompanied by any redness 
or swelling, occasioned a continual agitation in the seven men 
who were under the influence of the poison: they could not re- 
main at rest; and the least touch or the effort of walking caused 
* The fish in this instance was a percoid, the species of which has not 
been ascertained. 
