At a time when so much attention is being paid to the West Indian
Islands as regards their politics, social condition, and natural
history it may not be out of place to briefly consider the subject of
the poisonous fishes to be found in the neighboring seas. Considering
the number of unwholesome fish abounding in these waters and the
numerous cases of illness caused by them, I was surprised on
investigation to find that so little appeared to be known or written
on the subject. During my three-years' cruise in the West Indies the
study of those fishes reputed to be poisonous was forced upon me by
reason of the numerous cases of illness among the sailors of my own
ship. When it is asserted that there are no less than sixty varieties
of noxious fishes to be found in Cuban waters alone, it seems
desirable that those who are about to settle in these parts should
have some general idea as to what fish to choose and what to avoid.
Colored fishermen are not too particular about hawking unwholesome
fish in the streets, even when its sale is forbidden in the market,
and numerous cases have come under my notice where the unwary
purchaser has paid the penalty by a sharp and painful illness. One of
the great delights of our sailors is to land on some sandy beach,
provided with a large seining net, in order to catch fish, the
consumption of which varies the monotony of salt beef and pork. On
examining the hauls they made I invariably found some unwholesome
specimens, which I advised them to reject, and by so doing every time
they went seining had no more cases of fish poisoning on board.
In tropical seas some fish are found to be always poisonous wherever
and whenever caught, but there are numerous instances where wholesome
fish become noxious when found in certain localities, especially on
coral reefs and shoals. Fish when feeding on decomposing coral polyps,
medusæ, and poisonous mollusks found on these reefs often become
noxious, as the following instance will prove: Midway between Cuba,
Hayti, and Jamaica lie the extensive reefs and shoals of the Formigas,
which are several miles in extent and covered by a small depth of
water. These shoals present a concentration of all the incidents to be
found in West Indian fringing shore reefs. Arborescent corals and
spreading millepores stretch on walls and ledges, interspersed with
huge meandrinas and brainstones, among which lodge a profusion of
_Holothurias_, starfishes, and a variety of sponges. This great mass
of reefs, called from their clustering swarm the Ants' Nest, or the
Formigas, abound with all sorts of fishes. As you approach the great
submarine plateau, the odor of the slime and of the spermatic
substances that find a resting place in the crevices and shallow pools
spread through it is very remarkable--the pleasant blandness of the
sea breeze suddenly changing to the nauseating smell of a fish market.
Those who have waded on tropical shore reefs know not only the strong
scent given out by the polyps that build there, but feel how sensibly
the hands are affected, and how the skin of the thighs is susceptible
of a stinging irritation from the slightest contact with the slime of
corals. It has been found by invariable experience that all the fishes
taken on the Formigas are pernicious; that the barracudas especially
are always poisonous. Similar stretches of shoals among the Bahamas
produce fishes deleterious as food.
The low-spreading ledges and banks of the Virgin Islands, called the
Anegadas, or the Drowned Islands, afford a similar unfavorable ground
for fishing. In this way we may account for the remark of Dr. Grainger
that fishes are poisonous at one end of St. Christopher while they are
harmless at another. We get over, by these several incidents of those
fishing grounds, the adventitious occurrence of poisonous among
wholesome fishes, which become deleterious from the food on which they
subsist at certain seasons on certain banks and coasts.
Again, in the tropics wholesome fish soon become virulently poisonous
if kept too long, as the fierce heat favors rapid decomposition. In
this short article I have only space for a description of the most
common and injurious fishes met with in the West Indies. One of the
commonest fish in these seas is the barracuda (_Sphyræna barracuda_),
which can be easily recognized by its elongated body, covered with
cycloid scales. The color is dark olive-green on the back, fading to a
lighter green on the sides, while its under surface is silvery white.
The mouth is wide and curved, with long and sharp teeth. These fishes
are large and voracious, often attaining the length of six feet; and
as they are usually found close inshore, amid the heaviest surf, they
are as much feared by fishermen and bathers as the shark. Indeed, they
are more to be feared, for the shark as a rule is timid, and unless
extremely hungry is cautious in its voracity. The barracuda, on the
contrary, is very bold. The shark flees from a splashing in the water,
but the barracuda goes there to see what he may find, as he is only
attracted by live bait. The wounds inflicted by the barracuda are
exceedingly severe and sometimes fatal.
When young this fish is generally used as food, but having attained a
certain size the flesh becomes exceedingly noxious, at least at
certain seasons of the year. This change is said to be due to the
poisonous fish on which they feed. When caught on certain banks, as
the Formigas, their flesh is always extremely unwholesome, and, as
Kingsley says, they have this advantage, that while they can always
eat you, you can not often eat them with impunity. The Cubans, as a
rule, will not touch this fish, and at Santa Cruz it is the custom
never to eat it till the next day, and then not till after salting it;
but that is apparently no safeguard, as four persons living in
Kingston, Jamaica, suffered severely after eating "corned barracuda."
It is stated that when unwholesome, its teeth will be found of a
blackened color at the base, and on inserting a silver coin into its
flesh this will also turn black. The poisonous symptoms caused by this
fish are peculiar, and were strongly marked in the case of a friend of
mine who was a solicitor living in Barbados. He and several others who
had partaken of the same fish suffered from severe gastro-intestinal
disorder, with intense nausea and vomiting. His face swelled up and
became tubercular like a leper; afterward, general muscular tremblings
and acute pain about the body, particularly in the joints of his hands
and arms, came on. The nails of his feet and hands became black and
fell off without any pain, and his hair also fell out. For years after
he suffered from debility and tubercular skin eruptions. Death
sometimes follows, but those who do not die suffer for a long time
from its effects, which in some cases last for twenty-five years.
The "yellow-tailed sprat" (_Clupea thrissa_) is common in the West
Indies, and may be recognized by having its last dorsal ray prolonged
into a filament. A black spot behind the gill cover is said to
distinguish it from a somewhat similar fish, the "red-eared pilchard,"
which has a yellow spot behind its gill cover. Schomburgk gives
testimony to the poisonous properties of the "yellow-tailed sprat"
when found at certain periods of the year among the Leeward and Virgin
Islands.
The eating of this poisonous "sprat" is said to be followed by most
violent symptoms and rapid death. The common saying in the West
Indies--that if you begin at the head you never have time to finish
the tail--is almost literally true.
The eating of the roe of this "sprat" caused in Japan, in the year
1884, twenty-three deaths. The victims suffered from severe
inflammation of the mouth and throat, strong abdominal pain,
formication in the arms and legs, disorders of vision, paralysis,
convulsions, and loss of consciousness. Nausea, vomiting, and
diarrhoea often occurred. Death followed in some cases in a quarter of
an hour, but mostly in from two to three hours.
Lacroix describes a case of poisoning through eating the "sprat" which
occurred on board a French man-of-war. Out of a crew of fifty men,
thirty were dangerously ill and five died. The men experienced strong
muscular cramps in the arms and legs, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhoea.
Afterward congestion of the brain, delirium, and coma supervened.
Most of the cases of fish poisoning which I have met with in the West
Indies have been due to eating various kinds of "snappers," especially
the "gray snapper." The tropical species are very numerous and
difficult to differentiate, owing to their frequent change of color
according to age and surroundings. In 1897, at St. Georges, Grenada,
twelve persons who partook of a large gray snapper were attacked with
severe symptoms of fish poisoning. A few hours after the meal all
these were suffering from pain and fullness in the stomach, followed
by persistent vomiting, severe cramps, watery evacuations, weak,
thready pulse, and labored respirations. One of the victims was
examined by me four months afterward, and he stated that, owing to
intense weakness, he had been forced to keep his bed for several
months, during which period he suffered from various nervous
disorders. He had shooting pains and tingling of the limbs, dimness of
vision, and quick, thready pulse.
In 1893 seventeen persons living in Bridgetown, Barbados, were
attacked by similar symptoms to those mentioned above. All these had
eaten of a fish which had been hawked about by a fisherman, and which
was subsequently identified as a "gray snapper," though sold under a
more innocent name.
A Spanish naval surgeon, Don Anton Jurado, while serving on board the
gunboat Magallanes had an opportunity of proving Poey's statement that
the fishes caught on the coast of Cuba are often very poisonous. No
less than twenty-seven of the officers and men were taken ill, most of
them with gastro-intestinal disturbance of a more or less severe
nature; the others suffered from nervous symptoms.
The horse mackerel, green cavalla, and the jack are often found most
unwholesome when caught in West Indian waters.
In Barbados a whole family were seized with symptoms simulating
cholera from eating "green cavalla."
The editor of The Barbadian writes: "We think it right to caution
people against the fish called 'green cavalla' from being purchased by
their cooks. Some years ago we know that several individuals were
extremely ill from eating this fish, which is frequently very
poisonous. The night before last a whole family in Bridgetown, except
the master, who fortunately had dined out, were seized with violent
cholera after having partaken of cavalla."
The "jack" (_Caran plumieri_) is found to be poisonous in some seasons
of the year, and it is said that at such times two small red lumps
appear in its gills. When they are suspected of being in a poisonous
condition an experiment is tried upon a duck by giving her one of them
to swallow, and if at that season it is poisonous the duck dies in
about two hours. The "rock hind," or "smoky hind," after attaining a
certain size becomes most unwholesome, and often infested with
parasites. Numerous instances of severe symptoms attacking persons
after eating this fish are recorded.
Toadfish, or _Tetrodons_, are occasionally met with, and are to be
avoided as being extremely poisonous, especially if the roe or liver
be eaten. A family of coolies in Trinidad, in spite of being warned,
ate one of these fishes, with a fatal result. The symptoms were
blunted sensibility, trembling, general muscular weakness, difficulty
of breathing, vomiting of blood, convulsions, and death.
The _Diodonts_, "trunkfishes," are not nearly so poisonous as the
_Tetrodonts_, but they are found to be very noxious at certain times
or in certain localities, more especially if the gall bladder, liver,
and intestines are not removed before cooking. It is reported that
those persons who had eaten them suffered from loss of sensibility,
cold sweat over the whole body, and stiffened limbs. Death followed in
some cases.
The "prickly bottle fish" (_Diodon orbicularis_), met with in the Gulf
of Mexico, is said to be injurious when eaten.
The _Ostracion triqueter_, called in the West Indies "fair maid,"
"plate fish," "trunkfish," is often eaten with no ill effects by the
negroes, who, after cleaning it, bake it in its hard shell-like
covering. There is, however, a gelatinous matter near the tail which
is called "the jelly," and a similar substance is found near the
head. When only part of this jelly has been eaten its effects are a
peculiar vertigo, nausea, vomiting, pains all over the body, more
especially in the limbs. The feeling of vertigo is similar to that of
intoxication, hence the fish has been called "drunken fish."
The "filefishes," or "trigger fishes," when found in the tropics,
where they feed on coral polypi, have the reputation of being most
unwholesome.
In the West Indies "sea eels," or murenas, are only eaten by the
negroes. The blood of eels is said by Mosso to contain a poison like
that of vipers. It is related that a man drank some eel's blood mixed
with wine, and was in consequence seized with severe diarrhoea,
disturbance of vision, foaming at the mouth, and stertorous breathing.
He ultimately recovered after vigorous treatment.
Dr. Gordon, of Montego Bay, Jamaica, records a case of death from
eating the flesh and liver of a species of coast conger (_Gymnothorax
restratus_). In spite of treatment, the man died after a lingering
illness.
Space will not permit me to dwell in this article on the remaining
noxious fishes, but it is to be hoped that enough has been written to
teach people to be cautious in their selection of fish when in the
West Indies.