Abstract
PUFFER fish (Tetraodontoidea) is an important cause of food poisoning in China and Japan1,2. Murtha et al.2 claimed that the poison acts centrally and peripherally to produce respiratory and neuromuscular paralyses. They offered as proof of its central action the more rapid onset of respiratory depression when the toxic extract was injected into the carotid artery than when it was injected intravenously. This is disputable because the carotid artery normally supplies blood to the cerebrum while the brain stem is supplied by the basilar artery3. Secondly, the peripheral neuromuscular paralysis as described by Murtha et al.2 appears to be a late effect because the transmission in the phrenic nerve diaphragm preparation in their experiment was not blocked until 20–30 min after artificial respiration was resorted to for the respiratory arrest.
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References
Halstead, B. W., Copeia, 1, 31 (1953).
Murtha, E. F., Stabile, D. E., and Wills, J. H., J. Pharmacol., 122, 247 (1958).
Bradley, O. C., Topographical Anatomy of the Dog, 265 (Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh, 1948).
Hashimoto, Y., and Migita, N., Jap. Soc. Sci. Fish. Bull., 16–18, 341 (1951).
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LI, K. Action of Puffer Fish Poison. Nature 200, 791 (1963). https://doi.org/10.1038/200791a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/200791a0
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