Discovery of Poison Organs in Fishes, 253 



DISCOVERY OF POISON ORGANS IN FISHES. 



COMMUNICATED BY HENRY WOODWARD, F.Z.S. 



All comparative anatomists, from Cuvier down to the present 

 day, have decided to treat the accounts given by Pliny, iElian, 

 and Oppian, and other old writers, of the poisonous nature of 

 wounds inflicted by fish-spines as incredible, and only deserving 

 a place among " Old wives' fables." Cuvier observes, " having 

 no canal, nor communicating with any gland, they are unable to 

 shed any venom, properly so called, into the wound." 



Notwithstanding the verdict of science against the common 

 belief of fishermen, not only on our own coasts, but on the 

 shores of France and Spain, and among the natives of India 

 also, the conviction has always prevailed, that certain fishes 

 (belonging to the family of Acanthopterygii or perches), armed 

 with strong spines upon the gill covers and the dorsal fin, 

 inflicted poisonous wounds with these defences. 



That this is really so would seem to have been proved by 

 numerous cases recorded upon good medical authority, of 

 severe inflammation and permanently stiffened joints, resulting 

 from punctures inflicted by the spines of the " common 

 weever," or " sting-fish" {Trachinus vijpera), of our shores. 



The virulence of such injuries, has, however, always been 

 referred, in books upon natural history, to the rugged and 

 lacerated condition of the wound, or to the serrated form of tho 

 spine which caused it. This may be true in the case of wounds 

 caused by the cat-fish and other Siluroid fishes armed with 

 serrated spines ; but certainly does not account for the viru- 

 lence of wounds produced by smooth-spined fishes liko tho 

 perch family. 



Professor Allman made a most, interesting communication 

 upon this very subject, so long ago as November, 1840, to tho 

 Annals and Magazine of Natural History (vol. vi., p. 161). 

 He there says, " On the 9th August, 1839, I was wounded near 

 the top of the thumb by a Tracliinus vipera, which had just 

 been taken in a seine with herrings, sand-eels, etc. The wound 

 was inflicted by the spine attached to the gill-cover, during my 

 attempt to seize the fish. A peculiar stinging pain occurred a 

 few seconds after the wound, and this gradually increased 

 during a period of fifteen minutes. The pain had now become 

 most intolerable, extending along tho back of the thumb 

 towards the wrist ; it was of a burning character, resembling 

 the pain produced by the sting of a wasp, but much more 

 intense. 



