The Philippine Journal of Science, 



D. General Biology, Ethnology and Anthropology, 



Vol. VII, No. 4, 1912. 



EDITORIAL. 



SOME POISONOUS PHILIPPINE FISHES. 



The following letters serve to call our attention to the fact 

 that death resulting from eating certain species of fish is of 

 occasional occurrence in the Philippine Islands. 



Sib: I have the honor to send you a bottle containing a small specimen 

 of the poisonous fish known among the Moros as tinga-tinga and among the 

 Filipinos as botete. This is the first specimen I have been able to get 

 since the last case of poisoning which resulted in the death of a little 

 girl and the narrow escape of several members of the family. The first 

 effect after eating the fish is a dizziness and sickness at the stomach, but 

 if the latter does not occur at once the victim, if he yields to his inclination 

 and lies down and sleeps, will soon be aroused, vomit and soon expires. 

 There have been so many fatalities among the Moros on account of eating 

 the tinga-tinga that the people are careful. They say that if the head of 

 the fish is cut off at once and the entrails removed the fish may be cooked 

 and eaten. 



In the case of the fatality to which reference is made, the woman who 

 cooked the fish knew of its dangerous character, but thought she had 

 taken all necessary precautions. The little girl, a visitor in the house, ate 

 of the fish, was seized with the dizziness, and leaving the meal, lay down 

 and slept a short time, when she was seized with an attack of vomiting 

 and died in a few moments. All members of the family were seized with 

 the well-known effects and vomited all night. These eventually recovered. 



We have another poisonous fish in these waters and its use is as equally 

 dangerous as the tinga-tinga. It is called in the Moro "loco.'' 



(Signed.) Samuel D. Crawford, 



Governor of Basilan. 



Sir: I have the honor to inform you that at the sitio of Kamaya in 

 this municipality^ several cases of poisoning caused by a fish commonly 

 known as "botete" have occurred, the victims being Roque Noruega, Lorenzo 

 Noruega, Genoveva Noruega, Ciriaco Noruega, Petra Sales, Fernando 

 Noruega, Matias Noruega, Proceso Usenas, Antonio Tamora, Amada Use- 

 rias, Pomposa Usenas, Carmen Usenas, and Francisco Villarin. These 

 persons, without any thought of evil, ate of the fish mentioned yesterday 



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