[634] Pharmac. Ztg., 1885.
[635] Il Farmacista Italiano, xii., 1888.
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 or ball-bladder (Diodon); within twenty minutes the steward died; in ten minutes the boatswain was violently ill; the face flushed, the eyes glistening, and the pupils contracted; there was cyanosis of the face, the pulse was weak and intermittent, 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 possess a few experiments made by Dr. Collas,[636] 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 prostration. Death occurred without convulsions.
[636] Soc. Sci. Rev., July 19, 1862; Brit. and For. Med. Chir. Rev., Oct. 1862, p. 536.