498 poisons : their effects and detection. [§ 651. 
the case of a man who took, in 200 c.c. of wine, 0-64 kilo, of fresh eel 
blood, and suffered from diarrhoea with symptoms of collapse. 
In the Linnean Transactions for November 1860 is recorded a fatal 
accident which took place on board the Dutch ship Postillion at 
Simon’s Bay, Cape of Good Hope. The boatswain and purser’s steward 
partook of the liver of the toad fish (Tetrodon Honkengo , Bloch) ; within 
twenty minutes the steward died. In ten minutes the boatswain was 
violently ill ; the face flushed, the eyes glistening and the pupils con¬ 
tracted ; there was cyanosis of the face, the pulse was weak and inter¬ 
mittent, and swallowing was difficult \ the breathing became embarrassed, 
and the body generally paralysed. Death took place in seventeen 
minutes. The liver of one fish only is said to have been eaten. This 
might weigh 4 drachms. If the account given is literally correct, the 
intensity of the poison equals that of any known substance. 
The poisonous nature of the goby has also led to several accidents, 
and we have records of a few experiments made by Dr Collas, 1 who fed 
chickens with different parts of the fish, and proved that all parts were 
alike poisonous. The effects were slow in developing ; they commenced 
in about an hour or an hour and a half, and were well developed in five 
hours, mainly consisting of progressive muscular weakness and prostra¬ 
tion. Death occurred without convulsions. 
IV.—Poisonous Spiders and Insects. 
§ 651. The most important species of spiders known to be poison¬ 
ous are :— 
Nemcesia ccementaria, the Minier spider of Costa Kica, is believed 
to belong to this class, and is said to cause great injury to horses, oxen, 
and other domestic animals ; Theraphosa avicularia , the bird spider of 
the Brazils ; Theraphosa Blondii, the bush spider of South America and 
the West Indies ; and Theraphosa javanensis , a big red-brown spider 
found in Java—are all giant tropical hairy spiders, possessing large 
poison glands, and whose bite is capable of causing serious 
symptoms. 
The Malmignette ( Lathrodectes tredecim-guttatus ) is only 8-12 mm. 
long ; it has a blackish body ; on the under part of the abdomen are to 
be found thirteen triangular or half-moon shaped spots (hence the name); 
it is found in Tuscany, Corsica, Sardinia, and on the lower Volga. The 
nomadic tribes in South Russia are said to have lost 70,000 cattle, in 
1838 and 1839, through the bite of this small insect. 
A variety—the Kara-Kurt of the Tartars = “ black wolf ”—is Lathro- 
1 Soc. Sci. Rev., July 19, 1862 ; Brit, and For. Med. Chir. Rev., October 1862, 
p. 636. 
