414 
she remained lying on her mat. By the fourth 
day she could walk again, but she vomited and 
complained that her legs felt tingly for a week, 
by which time she was well enough to travel to 
another part of the island where she considered 
she could get more expert treatment. It is pos- 
sible that her vomiting was aggravated by her 
own home-made medicines. 
One of the boys ate but little of the fish; he 
suffered from nausea during the night, and the 
next morning his legs tingled but he was able 
to go to work. The other boy finished the fish, 
and in doing so ate far more than the others. 
He was taken ill about 2 hr before the rest of 
the family, at about eight o’clock, with nausea, 
vomiting, severe stomach-ache, and a fever of 
102 F. The assistant medical officer did not re- 
alize that it was ciguatera poisoning until the 
others became ill as well, so at first he treated 
the boy with penicillin for appendicitis. The 
boy vomited all night, as well as having acute 
diarrhea and pain. The next day he was still ill, 
with fever, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea; he 
lost his sense of balance, his legs were power- 
less, and he remained on his bed. By the third 
day he had completely recovered; he returned 
to work and suffered no lingering symptoms or 
after-effects. 
The three adults were in agreement on cer- 
tain symptoms; they all say that one of the first 
signs, which at the time they did not realize was 
the start of an attack of poisoning, was a funny 
feeling in their noses, as if the air passages were 
enlarged and they could breathe more freely. 
They also agreed that the numbness in their legs 
persisted for several days, and that water on 
their skins caused shivery feelings, as well as 
making their legs tingle again. 
Another man who was poisoned by a Luti- 
anus bohar, also in March, 1962, from the Betio, 
Tarawa, toxic reef, said that he had nausea and 
vomiting, but he complained that the most per- 
sistent symptom was a feeling of numbness and 
swelling of his lips and tongue. This sensation, 
together with pins and needles in his legs, per- 
sisted for about 10 days. 
It has not yet been proved whether the severe 
poisoning caused by large Muraenidae is true 
ciguatera or is caused by a different, although 
perhaps allied, toxin (Banner et al, I960; Hel- 
frich, 1961; Bouder et al., 1962). The Gilbertese 
PACIFIC SCIENCE, Vol. XVIII, October 1964 
consider it to be ciguatera poisoning but very 
much more severe than that from other fishes. 
They say that moray eels grow large, have vora- 
cious appetites, and are able to eat so many 
smaller toxic fish that they become deadly from 
the stored toxin. It has been proved that cigua- 
tera toxin is passed along the food chain, at 
least for toxic Lutianus bohar, which when fed 
to a previously nontoxic Acanthurus xanthop- 
terus Cuvier and Valenciennes, made the flesh 
of the latter toxic (Helfrich and Banner, 1963). 
In the Gilberts large moray eels may be deadly 
poisonous but only when caught in an area in 
which other species of fish are toxic. Outside 
these areas large moray eels are a popular food 
fish (see section on Nonouti). In 1961 two men 
died after eating part of a large moray eel 
caught on the Betio, Tarawa, toxic reef. The eel 
was cooked in the usual manner, without gut- 
ting or cleaning, and the family went to the 
cinema without eating any of it. While they 
were away two men, an old man and a young 
one, ate part of this eel. When the family re- 
turned from the cinema they found both men 
very ill, with violent vomiting and severe stom- 
ach-ache. They were both taken to the Betio 
hospital, in charge of the assistant medical offi- 
cer, where the old man lapsed into a coma and 
died at 2 AM the same night. The younger man 
lived for a week, but the only symptoms remem- 
bered by the assistant medical officer were that 
he suffered intense itchiness, that his skin peeled 
away, and that finally he went into a coma and 
died. 
The following history was supplied by an as- 
sistant administrative officer who was poisoned 
by an eel on Canton Island, in the Phoenix 
Islands, in 1947. The eel, a big, black moray, 
was caught in the lagoon and cooked and eaten 
by six men. True to normal practice, it was not 
gutted before being cooked. Of the six men who 
ate the eel, only this one man was poisoned; the 
others were completely unaffected. He was a 
newcomer to Canton Island and was given the 
choicest part of the eel, the fatty part from the 
belly, whereas the others ate only the meat. 
About half an hour after eating the eel, he be- 
gan to feel very ill. At first he felt very cold in 
the wind, so he moved out of it, and then felt 
far too hot. Then he felt as if he were standing 
on the bows of a ship in a rolling sea; this was 
