Nausea; thirst; tormina of the bowels; vomiting; an eruption on the skin, resembling the nettle-rash; tumefaction of the face; head-ache; difficult respiration; distention of the abdomen; sometimes cholera morbus; vertigo; delirium; cold sweats; convulsions; death. Such is the train of symptoms, liable of course, to variation in the order of succession, which are produced by the ingestion of fish-poison, as occasionally existing in salmon, herrings, eels, mackarel, many of the testaceous and most of the crustaceous fish of this country; and in a great number of fish[[488]] inhabiting the tropical seas.
The species of fish, from which deleterious effects have more commonly arisen in this country, are the Mytilus Edulis, or muscle. Dr. Burrows has given us an account of two cases of death from eating these fish, which occurred at Gravesend, under the care of Mr. Rogers, surgeon of that place, upon whose authority the statement is drawn up.[[489]] The subjects of the history were two youths of the ages of nine and fourteen, who had each eaten about a dozen of small muscles, which they had picked from the side of a fishing smack, in a dead and tainted state. In the Gazette de Santé,[[490]] and in the works of Fodéré,[[491]] and Behren,[[492]] similar cases are recorded. Vancouver,[[493]] in his voyage to the coast of America, relates that several of his men were ill from eating some muscles which they had collected and roasted for breakfast; in an hour after which they complained of numbness of the face and extremities, sickness, and giddiness. Three were more affected than the others, and one of them died.
Origin of Fish-poison.
If we admit that the symptoms which are occasionally produced by the ingestion of certain fish, depend upon the presence of poison, we have next to inquire into its nature and origin. Dr. Burrows considers that all the opinions which have been advanced upon this subject may, for the greater perspicuity and facility of discussion, be arranged under seven heads, viz. does the poison exist—1. In the skin?—2. In the stomach and intestinal canal?—3. In the liver or gall bladder?—4. In the entire substance of the fish?—5. In the food of fishes?—6. Is it a morbid change in the system of the fish?—7. Is it a poison, sui generis?
Upon these several questions Dr. Burrows has offered some observations. There do not appear to be any facts which can induce us to consider that the poison resides only in the skin.
Experience has shewn that the virus is particularly energetic in the viscera, commonly called the offals; and yet there are no grounds for concluding that it exclusively belongs to these parts. Captain Cook, and Messrs. Forster were poisoned by eating a piece of the liver only of a species of tetrodon; yet they who ate of its substance were also poisoned.
An opinion has long prevailed that the poisonous principle is derived from the substances upon which the fish feeds; and that of muscles, in particular, from copper; this latter hypothesis has received the sanction of Dr. Chisholm. We however agree with Dr. Burrows in considering that it has neither the support of observation or analogy. Dr. Beune has supposed that the acrid principle is no other than the spawn of the stella marina, an insect which very commonly lodges in the muscle. It seems, however, more probable that it is a product of decomposition, but which requires the concurrence of certain circumstances for its developement.
Before we conclude the history of septic poisons, there appears to be a species of death, particularly noticed by Dr. Gordon Smith,[[494]] which merits our attention, as having some relation to this class of agents—the fact of persons having been “eaten to death by maggots!” Such a death has been assigned to Sylla, by Plutarch; and to Antiochus Epiphanes, by Josephus, and the writer of the book of Maccabees. The fate of Herod is ascertained by Scripture. In modern history we have similar instances in Charles IX of France, and Philip II of Spain.
Numerous cases are recorded, in different medical works,[[495]] of the generation of maggots, i. e. the larvæ of different species of fly, not only in external sores and excoriations, but in the internal cavities of the human body. Dr. Lempriere[[496]] has related the case of an officer’s lady, who had gone through an acute fever, but in whom these maggots were produced, which burrowed, and found their way by the nose through the os cribriforme, into the cavity of the cranium, and afterwards into the brain itself, to which she owed her death. But of all the cases of this kind, that related by Dr. Gordon Smith is of the most revolting kind. “In the month of July 1809, a man was found near Finglas, in Ireland, lying under the wall of a lime-kiln, at an early hour in the evening, with his face on the ground, apparently dead. On turning him on his back to ascertain the real state of the case, it was discovered that he was yet alive, but under the most appalling circumstances. On removing his coat, the whole surface of his body appeared to be a moving mass of worms. His face was considerably injured as if from a fall, or bruises; his eyes were dissolved, and their cavities, as well as those of the ears, nose, and mouth, were filled with a white living mass, from which such innumerable quantities of maggots were continually pouring out, that the skull seemed to be filled with nothing else. After some time he recovered strength enough to walk, and regained recollection and voice sufficient to tell who he was, where he lived, and how he had been brought into that situation. It appeared that he was returning home upon a car the evening before; having drank to excess, he fell off, and remained in a state of insensibility until he was discovered. He could neither account for the wounds in his head, nor for his being so far from the road; but it appeared probable that he had received the contusion from the fall, and had insensibly crawled to the place where he lay. It was conjectured that the state of the atmosphere, as to humidity and temperature, had brought on a solution of the solids in the bruised parts, already disposed to putrescency, and now in close contact with the moist earth. In these, the eggs of innumerable insects being deposited, their generation proceeded with rapidity under circumstances so favourable. Every attention was paid to the unfortunate individual; he was removed to shelter, the parts were washed with spirits and vinegar, and the loathsome objects removed, as far as was possible. Cordials were poured down his throat, but he swallowed with difficulty; and in a very short time spasms took place which prevented him from swallowing altogether. The putrescence advanced; in a short time he became insensible; and about noon the following day he died, in a state of total putrisolution.”