61)6 IMSTOiiY OF 



bers of fishes inflict poisonous wounds, in the opinion of many, 

 fiiiniot be doubted. The eoncurvent testimony of mankind they 

 tliink sufficient to contradict a-iy reasonings upon this head, 

 taken from anatomical inspection. The great pain that is felt 

 from the sting given by the back fin of the weaver, bears no pro- 

 portion to the smallness of the instrument that inflicts the 

 wound. How the poison is preserved, or how it is conveyed 

 y the animal, it is not in our power to perceive ; but its actual 

 existence has been often attested by painful experience. In this 

 instance we must decline conjecture, satisfied with history. 



The fact of their being poisonous when eaten, is equally 

 notorious ; and the cause equally inscrutable. My poor worthy 

 fiiend, Dr Grainger, who resided for many years at St Christo- 

 pher's, assured me, that of the fish caught, of the same kind, at 

 one end of the island, some were the best and most wholesome 

 in the world ; while others taken at a different end were always 

 dangerous, and most commonly fatal. We have a paper in the 

 Philosophical Transactions, giving an account of the poisonous 

 qualities of those found at New Providence, one of the Bahama 

 islands. The author assures us, that the greatest part of the fish 

 of that dreary coast are all of a deadly nature : their smallest 

 effects being to bring on a terrible pain in the joints, which, if 

 terminating favourably, leaves the patient without any appetite 

 for several days after. It is not those of the most deformed 

 figure, or the most frightful to look at, that are alone to be 

 dreaded ; all kinds, at different times, are alike dangerous ; and 

 the same species which has this day served for nourishment, is 

 the next, if tried, found to be fatal ! 



This noxious quality has given rise to much speculation, and 

 many conjectures. Some have supposed it to arise from the 

 fishes on these shores eating of the manchineel apple, a deadly 

 vegetable poison, that sometimes grows pendent over the sea -. 

 but the quantity of those trees growing in this manner, bears no 

 proportion to the extensive infection of the fish. Labat has 

 ascribed it to their eating the galley-fish, which is itself most 

 potently poisonous : but this only removes our wonder a little 

 farther back ; for it may be asked, with as just a cause for curio- 

 sity, how comes the galley-fish itself to procure its noxious 

 qualities ? Others have ascribed the poison of these fishes to 

 their feeding upon co]>peras-bcds ; but I do not know cf v.uy 



