ICHTRYOTOXISMUS. 193 



be washed in clean water, and certainly one should avoid eating this 

 kind of food when it has stood for a few hours at summer heat in 

 the form of broth. 



Ichthyotoxismus. — Some fish are always poisonous ; others are 

 poisonous only during the spawning season, and still others are sub- 

 ject to epidemic bacterial diseases, and those affected with certain of 

 these diseases furnish flesh that is toxic to man, or, in other words, 

 the bacterial disease is transmitted to man with his food. Lastly, 

 fish, like other kinds of meat, may become infected with saprophytic 

 germs which produce toxins poisonous to man. The Spaniards use 

 the word siguatera ' to designate the complex of symptoms induced 

 in man by the eating of fish that are physiologically poisonous ; and 

 Blanchard proposes the general adoption of this term, while he 

 suggests that the word botulismus or botulism be used to designate 

 diseased conditions which result from the eating of any kind of meat 

 that is harmful on account of bacterial infection. His statement is 

 substantially as follows : " There are two distinct categories of in- 

 toxication with the flesh of vertebrates : 



" Botulismus is an intoxication induced by meat invaded by mi- 

 crobes and containing the ptomains elaborated by them ; this term 

 is applicable not only to disease caused by market meat, but also to 

 that induced by preserved foods, 



" Siguatera is an intoxication caused by fresh food, not infected 

 by bacteria, and in which the poisonous principles are leucomains 

 formed by the physiological activity of the tissues. I propose to 

 designate this category of intoxication by the word siguatera, a name 

 employed by the Spanish physicians of the Antilles to indicate 

 poisoning by eating fish." 



While we have not accepted Blanchard's nomenclature as appli- 

 cable to all kinds of poisonous meats, the distinction made by him 

 admirably states the difierences in the two kinds of fish poisoning. 

 It is a question whether or not we shall discuss in this connection 

 those fish whose flesh is not harmful, but which are supplied with 

 poisonous glands. However, as the secretions of the special glands 

 owe their toxic properties to physiological poisons, we will include 

 them in this category and will make brief mention of them. 



Robert makes the following classification of poisonous fish : 



1. Many fish possess poisonous glands that are connected with 

 their barbed fins with which they wound their enemies. The 

 structure of these glands is similar to those of poisonous snakes. 

 After the removal of the skin containing these glands the flesh is not 

 poisonous. Such are Trachinus draco of the German lakes, and 

 Serranus scriba of the Mediterranean sea. Stomias boa is feared on 

 account of its bite ; many roaches have a poisonous barb in the tail. 

 Bottard describes five classes of fish supplied with poisonous glands. 

 ^ Pronounced sig-wah-te'ra. 

 13 



