HILL — POISONOUS FISHES. 
223 : 
tlie branches of trees. When they are perfectly dry, they 
are collected in packets, each weighing abont two hundred 
pounds.” “ Redi has found, in several congers which he 
has dissected, some species of hydatids, nine or ten inches 
in length, situated on the coats of the stomach* the liver, 
the muscles, the ovaries, and other parts.” “ The mu.: 
rsense proper were carefully reared in vivaria by the Ro- 
mans. As early as the time of Csesar the multiplication 
of these domestic mursenee was so great that on the occasion 
of one of his triumphs that great general presented six 
thousand of them to his friends. Lieinius Crassus reared 
them so as to be obedient to his voice, and to come and 
receive their food from his hands ; while the celebrated 
orator Quintus Hortensius wept over the loss of those of 
which death had deprived him.” In all cases the bite of 
these fishes is severe, and often dangerous. 
Such is the testimony to the quality and estimation of 
the conger eel which Griffiths has collected in his Supple- 
ment to Malacopterygii apodes, in Cuvier’s Animal Kingdom. 
We see that the flesh does not agree with all stomachs; 
but what renders it so frequently deadly? The late Dr. 
William Gordon of Montego-bay, than whom there was 
not a more careful or more erudite investigator into phy- 
siological and pathological facts, assured me that in a case 
which had terminated in death after long lingering, from 
eating the Conger of our coasts, not the common Murcvnce-, 
but the Gymnotliorax in all probability, the injury suffered 
had resulted from eating the liver ; the rest of the fish would 
have no part in the deleterious consequences that ensued. 
The case he referred me to was that of a man at Unity 
Hall, who ate of a fish taken at the mouth of Great Riven, 
