194 • POISONOUS FOOD 



siderable doubt about this matter, as no scientific work has been 

 done on the subject. The symptoms are gastro-intestinal irrita- 

 tion, which may lead to collapse and death. Another fish which 

 is only poisonous at certain seasons is a so-called sardine Clupea 



Fig. 14. — Clupea longiceps {Sardinella neohowii). 



longiceps {Sardinella neohowii Val), found off the coasts of Ceylon, 

 and which, according to Tennent, caused much sickness years ago. 



Other poisonous fish are Tetrodon hispidus, the ' muki-muki ' or 

 death-fish of Hawaii, and the file fishes, of which Stephanolepsis 



Fig. 15. — Tetrodon vermicularis Schlegel. 

 (From Savtschenko's ' Atlas of Poisonous Fish.') 



hispidus L. may be mentioned as an example. Poisoning with 

 Tetrodon has, however, been more accurately studied, and may 

 be referred to at greater length under the term Fuguismus. 



Fuguismus. 



The Japanese term ' fugu ' includes several species of fish belong- 

 ing to the genus Tetrodon, of which the important species are 

 T. vermicularis, T. rubnpes, T. IcBvigatus, T. chrysops, T. rivulatus, 

 T. lunaris, T. pardalis, T. porphyreus, T. poicelonotus, T. stellatus, 

 and T. sticonotus, which are said by Scheube to be often used for 

 suicidal purposes. T. pennantii has also been found to be the 

 cause of poisoning in a case in Burmah. 



The poison appears to lie in the ovaries and testicles, which, 

 according to Tabara, contain — i. Tetrodin — a crystalline base; 

 2. Tetrodonic acid — a white, waxy body. Both are poisonous, but 

 the acid is said to be more so than the base. 



The symptoms, which begin in three to fifteen minutes after 

 eating one roe, are, according to Scheube, an unpleasant sensation 



