52 FISHERIES OP THE ORIENTAL REGION, 



and have an almost immediate effect. The fish are observed to 

 become stupefied and as it were intoxicated, and to rise to the 

 surface, floating there with their belly upwards, so as to be readily- 

 taken by the hand. It has been remarked that the larger fish 

 recover gradually from the effects of the poison, but that the 

 younger fry perish. It has been suggested that the action of the 

 plant on the human system would resemble that of Digitalis, and 

 might prove in a climate where that plant does not grow, a desirable 

 substitute." 



It may be mentioned in connection with this subject, that the 

 elder Pliny in the 25th book of his Natural History, Ch. liv., 

 attributes fish-poisoning properties to a plant which has been 

 somewhat doubtfully identified as the Aristolochia pistolochia 

 of Linnseus. He says " The fishermen on the coasts of Campania 

 give the round root the name of " Poison of the earth," and I 

 myself have seen them pound it with lime and throw it into the 

 sea. The fishes swam towards it at once with astonishiDg eagerness 

 and were at once struck dead so as to float on the surface." There 

 are two species of Aristolochia in the flora of Malaysia but to 

 neither of them are fish-poisoning properties attributed. 



Fish Manures. — Small fishes and those of an uneatable kind are 

 brought ashore by the fishermen and sold as manure. Chinese 

 are also employed by some of the sugar planters on the coast for 

 the especial purpose of catching fish to be employed as manure. 

 The consequences to the health of the very numerous labourers 

 on these plantations can be easily imagined. Many condemn the 

 practice as a great waste of the food-supplies of the people, but as 

 a rule only those species are employed which are not consumed as 

 food. The following is a list of the species which I have seen 

 principally employed as manure. 



1. Ambassis nalua, Cuv. and Val. A fish belonging to the 

 perch family, comprising the smallest of that extensive group, 

 some of the species not exceeding an inch in length. They are 

 most abundant on the coasts of the tropical Indo-Pacific, and in 

 the fresh waters belonging to that area. The species are numerous 



