Captain James Cook (1728–1779)
Tetrodotoxin (TTX) was used in the 1930s in Japan to treat pain attributed to terminal cancer and migraine headaches. As a laboratory tool, it helped scientists to better understand how electrical impulses are carried down nerves. Far more interesting, however, is its toxic nature. Said to be 1,000 to 10,000 times more poisonous than cyanide, it is among the most poisonous substances and lacks a known antidote.
The ancient Japanese and Chinese recognized the dangers associated with eating selected parts of the puffer fish several thousand years ago. The first recorded case of poisoning appears in Captain James Cook’s logbook entry of September 7, 1774, during the course of his second voyage around the world. Cook and the ship’s naturalist ate the liver and roe of an unfamiliar fish in New Caledonia and hours later experienced numbness of sensation similar to “exposing one’s hands and feet to fire after being pinched much by frost.” By morning, they recovered. Not so fortunate were the ship’s pigs, which died after eating the entrails.
In 1909, TTX was isolated from the puffer fish, an inhabitant of the Indian and Pacific oceans and named by the Japanese scientist Yoshizumi Tahara. TTX acts like Novocain and related local anesthetics. It blocks the movement of electrical impulses on sensory nerves, which results in a loss of sensation and paralysis of voluntary muscles—particularly the breathing muscle (diaphragm)—resulting in death by respiratory failure. Puffer fish (fugu in Japanese) is a delicacy in Japan, and only licensed chefs can prepare and cook it (without the TTX-rich liver, ovaries, and skin) after completing a two- to three-year apprenticeship.
Ian Fleming’s fans recall that at the conclusion of his novel From Russia with Love (1957), SMERSH villain Rosa Klebb poisoned 007 with TTX, and he remained conscious but paralyzed, waiting to die from asphyxiation. In the 1980s, TTX was a purported ingredient in Haitian “Zombie powder,” as the poison can render the victim near death but conscious for several days. However, the idea that such a powder accounted for descriptions of “voodoo zombies” was soon dismissed by scientists.
SEE ALSO Cocaine (1884), Novocain (1905), Xylocaine (1948).
The puffer fish is said to be the world’s second most poisonous vertebrate, following only the golden poison frog of Colombia. Individuals who survive the profound respiratory-depressing effects of tetrodotoxin remain conscious for extended periods with their brain function intact.