CHAPTER XIII 



POISONOUS FOOD 



Preliminary — Animal food poisoning — Products normally present — Fuguismus 

 — Post-mortem decomposition — Vegetal food poisoning — Lathyrismus — 

 Loliismus — Paspalismus — Atriplicismus — Fabismus — Fagopyrismus — 

 References. 



PRELIMINARY. 



Food poisoning, technically called bromatoxismus, may be divided 

 into two classes:— 



1. Animlal food poisoning, 



2. Vegetal food poisoning. 



I. ANIMAL FOOD POISONING. 



Animal food poisoning is called zootrophotoxismus, and may be 

 due to — 



(a) Products normally present in certain animals, but poisonous 

 to man. 



(6) Poisonous food having been eaten by an animal prior to 



its being killed for food. 

 (c) Products abnormally produced in the living animal. 

 {d) Post-mortem decomposition. 



But of these we need only concern ourselves with the first and 

 the last. 



Products Normally Present— Poisoning by products normally 

 present in the animal is called ' siguatera,' and is generally due 

 to fish, though it may also be caused by Molluscs, Crustaceans, 

 and Coelenterates. 



The most dangerous fish are those living among coral reefs, and 

 particularly those which are bright-coloured. It is possible that 

 the poisonous properties may be due not so much to the fish itself 

 as to the fact that it has eaten decomposing food, such as dead 

 medusae, corals, etc. 



Fretz and Branch have noted fish poisoning in 191 5 in St. 

 Christopher and Nevis, and think that it is due to the Barraconda 

 {SphyrcBfia), while McNaughton reports similar poisoning from the 

 Gilbert and Ellice Islands. 



Certain species of the genus Clupea (Cuvier), particularly C. thrissa 

 (Osbeck) are noted as being very poisonous, but there is con- 



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