Poisonous Properties of Eel Blood

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Aug 12, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 31.

Poisonous Properties of Eel Blood

M. Mosso of Turin, having carried out a series of experiments with the blood of eels, finds that it possesses marked poisonous properties. Even to the tongue it has an insupportable acridity, and a very small quantity of the serum is sufficient to kill a dog. Half a cubic centimeter injected beneath the skin of a dog weighing thirty-five pounds killed it in four minutes. At this rate, an eel weighing five pounds would contain enough poison to dispatch ten men. The blood of animals thus poisoned cannot be made to coagulate, just as after the bite of serpents. Fortunately the blood is inert when introduced via the stomach, and it loses its toxic properties when heated.