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II. On the Poisonous Fishes of the Caribbee Islands
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 January 2013
Extract
The subject of poisonous fish has long been a source of puzzle and speculation to the inhabitants of the West Indies. Much has been conjectured upon it, and numerous tests and theories been proposed, which have had for a time their believers and advocates; but all have been found to be equally baseless. The author of this paper, by a narrative of what he has himself seen and observed on the subject, proposes rather to shew to the Society what it is not, than what it actually is, and thereby to clear the way for the future successful investigation of this curious and interesting phenomenon, by dissipating many erroneous notions that stand in the way of the discovery of truth.
Throughout the greater part of the West Indies, the accident of meeting a poisonous fish is a rare and extraordinary occurrence. At Barbadoes, for instance, it happens so seldom, that the majority of even the best informed inhabitants can scarcely be made to believe, that it has ever taken place amongst them.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of The Royal Society of Edinburgh , Volume 9 , Issue 1 , 1823 , pp. 65 - 80
- Copyright
- Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1823
References
page 66 note * Harang aux gros yeux of the French, and Scomber of naturalists.
page 68 note * The fish is, comparatively to the horse-eyed cavallos, a much smaller one, and consequently a small portion only could fall to the share of each member.
page 68 note † Let it not be here supposed, that this fish-poison bears any analogy to the affections that are sometimes induced upon particular constitutions in this country, from eating some particular kinds of shell-fish. The fish-poison affects all who receive it, as generally, and as certainly, as opium or arsenic. In the year 1797, at Cape Nicholas Mole, in St Domingo, almost every officer in the Army and Navy suffered from it, from eating of one large fish, on the occasion of a garrison dinner, and several of the black domestics died.
page 69 note * Sardine doré of the French, and Clupea Thryssa of naturalists.
page 69 note † La Bechune of the French, and Perca major of naturalists.
page 70 note * Xiphias of naturalists.
page 73 note * In the Number for October 1808 of the Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal.