250 
THE OCEAN WORLD. 
The question has been much agitated, without being positive? 
resolved, whether the Physalia are venomous or not : if they can 1' ^ 
or make sick the man or animal which swallows them. Listen to 1 1 
opinions of M. Piicord-Madiaua, a physician of. Gnadaloupe, who nia e 
direct experiments with a view to settling the question. “ 
inhabitants of the Antilles,” he says, “say that the ‘galleys’ alt _ 
poisonous, and that the negroes make use of them, after being dn el 
and powdered, to poison both men and annuals. The fishermen 0 
the islands also believe that fish which have swallowed them becoio 6 
deleterious and poison those who eat them, a prejudice which has be ’ 
adopted by many travellers, and has even found its way into scient’ 
books. Wo can state, as the result of direct experiment, that tlioug 1 
the ‘galley’ will burn the ignorant hand which is touched by its tfi®' 
tacles, when dried in the sun and pulverized, it becomes mere grains o 
3b 
for 
dead matter, producing no effect whatever upon the animal economy 
On the other hand, we read in P. Labat’s Yoyage, vol. ii., p. 
“ that the becune should not be eaten without some precaution, 
this fish being extremely voracious, greedily devours all that coin 01 ’ 
within its reach in and out of the water, and it often happens that i 
meets aud swallows ‘ galleys,’ which are very caustic, and a viole^ 
poison. The fish does not die, but its flesh absorbs the venom an 1 
poisons those who eat it.” “ There is every reason to believe,” 
M. Leblond, in the work already quoted, “ that the sardine, as well & 
many other species of fish, after having ate the tentacles of the ‘ galW’ 
acquires a poisonous quality. Supping at an auberge on one occaSK” 1 ’ 
with other persons, a becuno was served up, af which gastronome 1 
are very fond, and which is usually perfectly harmless : five pers 1 ' 11 ’, 
partook of it, and immediately afterwards exhibited every symptom 
being poisoned. This was manifested by a burning heat in the reg 101 * 
of the stomach. I bled two of them : one was cured by vomit 111 ' ’ 
The com 
put 
one 
other would take nothing hut tea and some culinary oil. 
continued during the night, and had disappeared in the morning, 
he entertained so great a horror of water, that during the remain 11 
ler 
of the voyage a glass of it presented to him made him turn 
eat the Physalia become a poison for those who eat them, although 
does not appear that he had any evidence of the fish having ate 
“ galley,” or any other poison. 
M. Leblond 
concludes, from this and other facts, that the fishes wb lC 
