toad-fish

Dictionary of Australasian Words Phrases and Usages by Edward E. Morris

n.


In New Zealand, a scarce marinefish of the family Psychrolutidae, Neophrynichthyslatus. In Australia, the name is applied to Tetrodonhamiltoni, Richards., and various other species of Tetrodon, family Gymnodontes, poisonous fishes.

Toad-fishes are very closely allied to Porcupine-fishes.«Toads» have the upper jaw divided by a median suture, whilethe latter have undivided dental plates. See Porcupine-fish and Globe-fish,

1836. Ross, `Hobart Town Almanack,' p. 89:

«The Poisonous or Toad Fish of Van Diemen's Land.( Communicated by James Scott, Esq. R.N. ColonialSurgeon). . . . The melancholy and dreadful effectproduced by eating it was lately instanced in the neighbourhoodof Hobart Town, on the lady of one of the most respectablemerchants, and two children, who died in the course of threehours . . . The poison is of a powerful sedative nature,producing stupor, loss of speech, deglutition, vision andthe power of the voluntary muscles, and ultimately an entiredeprivation of nervous power and death.»

1844. J. A. Moore, `Tasmanian Rhymings,' p. 24:

«The toad-fish eaten, soon the body dies.»

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