9 



The highly poisonous nature of this small fish, has 

 been long known to the fishermen of the Colony, yet 

 several persons have fallen a sacrifice from using it as 

 food. I have it from good authority, that during the 

 war times, when Muizenburg and the surrounding coun- 

 try were occupied by an English encampment, some 

 soldiers, who had been fishing on its coast, were killed 

 by eating imprudently of it. But we have more recent 

 cases on record, which prove beyond doubt its virulent 

 property, for in August 1845, two seamen, belonging 

 either to the Banket or Postillion, Dutch men-of-war, 

 then lying at anchor in Simon's Bay, met with an un- 

 timely death, from having partaken of this fish, while 

 the same fatal result, in August 1846, occurred to one 

 of the crew* of the French Corvette I! Oise, who died 

 on board of that vessel from the very same cause, f 



The symptoms usually observed in cases of poisoning 

 of this kind, are nausea, colic, great heat and itching 

 of the skin, quick pulse, giddiness, loss of vision, cold 

 clammy perspiration, and finally death under convulsions. 

 The exact nature of the poison has as yet been but little 

 ascertained. It has been ascribed by some to the feeding 

 of the fish on poisonous Mollusca, by some to the disen- 

 gagement of sulphuretted hydrogen, and by others again 

 to a particular specific venom, not yet discovered by 

 chemical analysis. Whether the fish possesses that 

 poisonous quality at all seasons, is not sufficiently known, 

 but it seems, that most species belonging to the tribe 

 are equally noxious, for Osbeck, \ in his voyage to China, 



* This man's name was Pierre Couzinet. 



f In order to prevent similar occurrences in Simon's Bay, Government would 

 greatly contribute to the public safety, by inserting in the Port Regulations a 

 general warning against the use of this dangerous fish. A hint to that effect, was 

 thrown out at that time in Silberbauer's Shipping List for 1846, August 14th, 

 No. 137, but no notice, I think, has been taken of it by the authorities. 



J P. Osbeck's Voyage to China and the East Indies. Forster's Engl, translat. 

 vol. 1. pag. 364-305. 



B 



