MARINE TOXINS AND VENOMOUS AND POISONOUS MARINE ANIMALS
305
4. Pollution of the ocean by industrial poisons.
5. The dumping of large quantities of metals, particularly copper,
into the ocean, such as occurred in the Pacific at the end of
World War 11.
6. Epidemics in fishes, giving rise to toxic endogenous substances.
7. Spawning activities.
8. Feeding on corals.
9. Feeding on jellyfishes.
10. Feeding on pal010 worms.
11. Feeding on toxic molluscs.
12. Feeding on zooanthellae in corals.
13. Feeding on other toxic fishes.
14. The dumping of radioactive materials into the ocean.
15. Climatic changes.
16. Leaving the fish exposed to moonlight.
The history of fish poisoning dates back at least to the Fifth
Dynasty of the Egyptians. Figures in the tomb of the pharoah Ti
indicate that Tetraohon was known in that period (2500 B.u.), and
evidence indicates that these people knew the fish to be poisonous.
According to Autenrieth (1833), Galen observed that the moray could
be poisonous. Tani (1945) states that the earliest record of poisoning
following ingestion of tetraodontoid fishes in the Orient is that from
the Han Dynasty (202 B.c.-A.D. 220). He cites a passage noting the
death of a man following ingestion of the liver of one of the puffers.
The fist historian of the West Indies, Martyr, described the
first known incident of fish poisoning in that area in 1555. A few
years later, de Landa wrote of the lethal properties of the puffers
off Yucatan (Baughman, 1952). Quiros (1606) speaks of a fish called
“Pargos” which poisoned his entire crew in the New Hebrides.
Kaempfer, a physician to the Dutch Embassy in Japan during the
seventeenth century, describes the poisoning produced by several
species of “ Furube ’’ (puffers). He also notes the use of the fish by
“ people that by some long and tedious sickness are grown weary of
their lives, or are otherwise under miserable circumstances, frequently
choose this poisonous fish, instead of a knife or halter to make away
with themselves ” (Kaempfer, 1690-1692). The use of this fish aa an
agent for poisoning man, and other animals, has a long and fascinating
history which extends down to the present. It is the animal poison most
commonly employed by characters in fiction for the doing away with
rivals or enemies. In a recent Ian Fleming novel it was used to poison
the British secret agent, James Bond, who almost went to eternal rest
A.Y.B.-3
0
305
4. Pollution of the ocean by industrial poisons.
5. The dumping of large quantities of metals, particularly copper,
into the ocean, such as occurred in the Pacific at the end of
World War 11.
6. Epidemics in fishes, giving rise to toxic endogenous substances.
7. Spawning activities.
8. Feeding on corals.
9. Feeding on jellyfishes.
10. Feeding on pal010 worms.
11. Feeding on toxic molluscs.
12. Feeding on zooanthellae in corals.
13. Feeding on other toxic fishes.
14. The dumping of radioactive materials into the ocean.
15. Climatic changes.
16. Leaving the fish exposed to moonlight.
The history of fish poisoning dates back at least to the Fifth
Dynasty of the Egyptians. Figures in the tomb of the pharoah Ti
indicate that Tetraohon was known in that period (2500 B.u.), and
evidence indicates that these people knew the fish to be poisonous.
According to Autenrieth (1833), Galen observed that the moray could
be poisonous. Tani (1945) states that the earliest record of poisoning
following ingestion of tetraodontoid fishes in the Orient is that from
the Han Dynasty (202 B.c.-A.D. 220). He cites a passage noting the
death of a man following ingestion of the liver of one of the puffers.
The fist historian of the West Indies, Martyr, described the
first known incident of fish poisoning in that area in 1555. A few
years later, de Landa wrote of the lethal properties of the puffers
off Yucatan (Baughman, 1952). Quiros (1606) speaks of a fish called
“Pargos” which poisoned his entire crew in the New Hebrides.
Kaempfer, a physician to the Dutch Embassy in Japan during the
seventeenth century, describes the poisoning produced by several
species of “ Furube ’’ (puffers). He also notes the use of the fish by
“ people that by some long and tedious sickness are grown weary of
their lives, or are otherwise under miserable circumstances, frequently
choose this poisonous fish, instead of a knife or halter to make away
with themselves ” (Kaempfer, 1690-1692). The use of this fish aa an
agent for poisoning man, and other animals, has a long and fascinating
history which extends down to the present. It is the animal poison most
commonly employed by characters in fiction for the doing away with
rivals or enemies. In a recent Ian Fleming novel it was used to poison
the British secret agent, James Bond, who almost went to eternal rest
A.Y.B.-3
0