Notices of New Books. 2919 



to the mangrove trees : and in China, as I am informed by my friend 

 Dr. W. Baird, the sailors in our India merchantmen are prohibited 

 from purchasing a large clustered kind of oyster, taken from a bed 

 near the mouth of the river at Whampoa, and brought for sale by the 

 natives, it having been found that they were the cause of unpleasant 

 symptoms. On the shores of the West Indies, there is found a large 

 pale Chita, said to be poisonous ; while again in the East, the fish of 

 Mitra episcopalis enjoys, probably unjustly, the same reputation, but 

 you must be guarded against the assertion of those who say that this 

 Mollusk wounds them who would touch it with a kind of pointed 

 trunk ; this can only be the proboscis, an instrument unfit for the pur- 

 pose, but of extraordinary length, the animal being able, according to 

 Mr. Stutchbury, to project it to the distance of five inches. But cer- 

 tainly of all Mollusca the Mussel (Mytilus edulis) is that which proves 

 most frequently poisonous. I have known them to produce an itchy 

 eruption and swelling over the whole body, attended with great anxiety 

 and considerable fever. ' On some parts of the coast of Yorkshire, 

 where mussels are abundant, a belief is prevalent among the people 

 that they are poisonous, and they are consequently never eaten.' 

 Many cases are on record in which their use has proved fatal. A 

 case, says Dr. Bateman, is mentioned by Ammans and Valentinus, 

 in which a man died so suddenly after eating mussels, that suspicion 

 of having administered poison fell upon his wife. Some of Captain 

 Vancouver's men having breakfasted on roasted mussels were soon 

 after seized with a numbness about their faces and extremities ; their 

 whole bodies were shortly affected in the same manner, attended with 

 sickness and giddiness, and one died. Of the mussels of Van Dieman's 

 Land, Captain Freycinet reports that they often enclose a small crab,* 

 or little grayish pearls ; such mussels ought to be avoided, since they 

 are liable to occasion severe colics. In the month of June, 1827, a 

 great number of the poor in Leith were poisoned by eating these shell- 

 fish, which they procured from the docks. ' The town,' says Dr. 

 Combe, ' was in a ferment, and the magistrates, with great propriety, 

 issued a warning against the use of the mussels. Many deaths were 

 reported, and hundreds of individuals were stated to be suffering 

 under it. Luckily matters were not so deplorable; but we ascer- 

 tained, that in addition to the man mentioned before, the companion 

 of our patient, an elderly woman, had died. In all, about thirty cases 



* The author should have explained that the occurrence of small crabs of the 

 genus Pinnotheres, &c. in bivalve molluscs is by no means uncommon. 



