According to his memoirs (Cook 1777, as cited by Kao, 1966), one of Cook’s sailo

Question

According to his memoirs (Cook 1777, as cited by Kao, 1966), one of Cook’s sailors obtained a puffer fish from a local trader in New Caledonia. Cook’s two onboard biologists tried to talk him out of eating the fish, but Cook was after all the captain, and all three tasted the liver and roe. Cook wrote: “About three o’clock in the morning we found ourselves seized with an extraordinary weakness and numbness all over our limbs. I had almost lost the sense of feeling; nor could I distinguish between light and heavy bodies of such as I had strength to move, a quart pot full of water and a feather being the same in my hand.” In thinking about the Puffer Fish based on your reading and the short video below, how do the fish’s toxins impact the brain and body? Please be sure to put the concepts into your own words in explaining your ideas.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rFwzi4-oLo

Please answer in 250 words or less. NO Copy pasted answers.

Explanation / Answer

Almost all Puffer fish contain a poisonous chemical called tetrodoxin which has adverse affect on humans. Researchers said that tetrodoxin is 1200 times more poisonous than cyanide. Immediately after consuming puffer fishes, severe weakness will be developed in human bodyand there would be a numbness in limbs also. It will affect the brain do much do that the human brain is not in a position to distinguish between light and heavy substance. It will make the brain dead and the person may die.

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