SEA-PIKES. 
73 
j! they have only to observe if, in cutting it up, there 
j; flows away a sort of white water, or rather a kind 
i of thin matter, which is, in every case, a certain 
; sign that the fish is in the diseased state of which 
I have spoken above. D. Arthur O’Neill, Mar- 
I quis del Norte, has told me that he has seen expe- 
1 riments tried on dogs, and that all have confirmed 
! the exactness of this criterion. The symptoms of 
!j poisoning by the Barracoota are, a general trem- 
I bling, nausea, vomiting, and acute pains, particu- 
I larly in the joints of the arms and the hands. 
! Sometimes the symptoms succeed each other with 
ii such rapidity that it becomes extremely difficult 
i to determine with precision the different periods 
i of the disease. 
: When death does not terminate the malady, 
I which happily is the more ordinary case, the virus 
is sometimes seen to cause pathological pheno- 
; mena altogether singular. The pains in the joints 
become stronger ; the nails of the feet and hands 
gradually fall away ; the hair also, which is of a 
nature analogous to the nails, ends by falling off. 
I These phenomena have been observed in many 
! individuals, some1;imes continuing during a great 
I number of years. A person has been mentioned 
' to me, who suffered in this way more than twenty- 
five years. 
It is a remarkable fact that when the Barra- 
coota has been salted, it never causes any accident. 
At St. Croix, for example, they are in the habit 
I of eating it only the day after it has been salted. 
Does salt act as an antidote to the poison of this 
I fish? 
I have not myself been a witness of any cases 
I of poisoning by the Barracoota, and I have only 
