68 ON THE POISONOUS FISHES 



loes (a much smaller fish) beset the shores and wharfs of Basse- 

 terre, the capital of the island, in such numbers, that they 

 were taken in all kinds of ways by the common people, and an 

 English merchant, attracted by the sight of this fishery, could 

 not resist the temptation of a remarkably fine one, which he 

 purchased for a trifle, and carried home to his family. They 

 were taken ill after eating it, much in the same manner as the 

 Quartermaster-General's, though not so severely *. His lady 

 only had alarming symptoms ; but, amongst the many thou- 

 sands of these fish that had been eaten in the town, this one 

 alone was ascertained to have possessed any poisonous quali- 

 ty. The British Medical Staff was in the closest communica- 

 tion with the French Faculty on the subject, in consequence 

 of the first accident, and if any others had occurred, it is next 

 to impossible that they could have been concealed from us f. 

 These casualties strongly excited the attention of the Go- 

 vernor-General, Sir James Leith, who directed me to call offi- 

 cially upon all the French Faculty, (some of them men of 

 much knowledge and experience) for information on the sub- 

 ject ; and from them we learnt, that sixteen different species 

 of fish had been found more or less poisonous, at different 

 times, in Guadaloupe ; but that in all, with one exception (that 



of 



* The fish is, comparatively to the horse-eyed cavallos, a much smaller one, 

 and consequently a small portion only could fall to the share of each member. 



-J* Let it not be here supposed, that this fish-poison bears any analogy to the 

 affections that are sometimes induced upon particular constitutions in this coun- 

 try, from eating some particular kinds of shell-fish. The fish-poison affects all 

 who receive it, as generally, and as certainly, as opium or arsenic. In the year 

 1797, at Cape Nicholas Mole, in St Domingo, almost every officer in the Army 

 and Navy suffered from it, from eating of one large fish, on the occasion of a 

 garrison dinner, and several of the black domestics died. 



