POISONS OBTAINED FBOM FISH 111 



pectoral spines of this fish ; whether the poison is 

 inoculated from the mucus or slime covering the body, 

 or, as in the case of the spiny dog-iish, deiived from a 

 definite poison gland at the base of the spines, has not 

 yet been determined. It is beHeved in Kelantan that 

 if the brain of the *7i:a?i Mli be removed and rubbed into 

 the wound made by the spine, the poison \vill be 

 neutrahsed and the wound will heaL Fishermen in 

 Malayan w^aters say that this unpleasant-looking fish 

 mews like a cat when it is hooked ; but the popular name 

 is really given to it in allusion to the long barbels or 

 feelers about the mouth, which have been compared to 

 the whiskers of a cat. The " miaw" may be caused in 

 sac-gilled cat-fish by expulsion of air from the breathing 

 sac when the fish is in peril. ' 



v fThe Ikan SSmbilang.— In addition to the ikan 

 Mli there is a far more dangerous cat-fish, called the 

 ikan semhilang by Malays (ikan means a fish). It is 

 Paraplotosus albilabris (Cuv. and VaL — Siluridse), and 

 is the most dangerous of this genus in Malayan waters. 

 The ikan sembilaiig is much dreaded by Malay fishermen, 

 because it can inflict very serious envenomed wounds 

 with the serrated spines of both its dorsal and pectoral 

 fins. These enlarged bony rays are provided with 

 definite poison glands. Other even more poisonous 

 species, the semhilang karang (Plotosus lineatus, 

 Bleeker ; P. anguillaris, Bloch) and ikan kelara or 

 gemang (P. canias), occur in the estuaries and sea of the 

 Malay Peninsula and Ai'chipelago. Womids made by 

 live fish of all the genus are equally dreaded, but they 

 are valuable as food and widely consumed. The 

 poisonous secretion is pressed mechanically into the 

 wound by contact with the spine. Van Leent cites the 

 case of two Dutch sailors in which lock-jaw followed 

 pricks on the foot from an ikan sinibilang, Coutiere 



