How did the Spaniards feel, leaving their native shores on multi-month expeditions in the 15th century? It is unlikely that modern people for the most part will ever be able to understand what it means to open unknown and unseen horizons in the most literal sense. One thing is certain - sometimes the Spanish sailors felt a terrible pain in the stomach, endured vomiting and diarrhea, and also faced various hallucinations. The reason for all of the above could lie in the last dinner.
Back in the 7th century AD, the Chinese court physician Chen Tsang-Shi from the Tang dynasty described a case of a strange illness and death of a person after eating a sea fish - yellow-tailed carang. Then Tsang Shi, due to objective reasons, could not solve the riddle, however, there is every reason to believe that the cause of death from sea fish was the same as that of many Spanish sailors in the 15th century. Later, in 1520, the scribe of the Spanish court under the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire and concurrently the king of Spain (the united Castile and Aragon) to Charles V, Pedro Martyre D'Anger described numerous facts of poisoning sailors in the expeditions of Christopher Columbus, Vasco da Gama and Fernando Magellan.
Interesting fact:until 1479 no "Spain" existed. In the Iberian Peninsula, there were several Catholic kingdoms that fought centuries of war with the Arabs in within the framework of the Reconquista (a campaign to reclaim from Christian territories, which began in the VIII century of our era!). The largest were Castile, Aragon and Portugal. In 1479, the reconquista was completed and a new, still very loose, kingdom of Spain, holding mainly on the huge authority of Isabella I and Ferdinand II, appeared.
So "technically" the entire Christian population of the Pyrenees at that time could be called "Spaniards", although the locals identified themselves by those "small" lands where they came from. Until 1640, the Kingdom of Portugal was also part of a unified Spain, with its rulers in personal union. The folding of nations in the modern sense began only in the 16th-17th centuries, mainly after the Thirty Years War (1618-1648) and the beginning of the active development of capitalism in Europe. It is noteworthy that a number of problems of modern Spain with the separatism of individual lands stretches directly from the 15th century.
In the following centuries, records of mysterious poisoning by sea fish on long-distance expeditions now and then appeared in various documents. And only in 1866, the Cuban physician Felipe Poei, having analyzed all known cases at that time, introduced the term "ciguatera". The scientist believed that this poisoning occurs due to the ingestion of marine mollusks, in particular plankton, into the body. Once again, the mysterious ciguatera reminded of itself during the Second World War, when American sailors began to poison themselves with fish. Then the US Navy connected scientists and very soon the answer to the riddle was found.
The culprit of the poisoning turned out to be a special and rather rare biological poison, which was called ciguatoxin. This substance has a habit of accumulating in the meat of marine life, mainly fish as a result of eating algae and plankton. Initially, the poison is secreted by dinoflagellates, unicellular organisms that live in seawater in tropical and subtropical latitudes. The poison is practically not excreted from the body of sea inhabitants, gradually accumulating in the meat in more and more quantities. Moreover, ciguatoxin is in most cases harmless to the fish itself.
The toxic substance affects people in different ways. As a rule, the effects of poisoning appear 1-6 hours after eating the fish. Intoxication can be accompanied by vomiting, abdominal pain, weakness, diarrhea, even hallucinations. Some are lucky and their ciguatoxin poisoning proceeds practically unnoticed. In some cases, the poison is fatal to humans. There is no specific treatment, as a rule, doctors apply a general set of measures to remove intoxication from the body to a poisoned person.
According to the American "Food and Drug Administration" (Food and Drug Administration) food and medicine), every year from 30 to 50 thousand cases of poisoning ciguatoxin. At the same time, American doctors emphasize that the real figure may be higher, since not all cases of poisoning are detected due to the absence of clinical symptoms. The last most widespread poisoning of people with seafood containing this poison was recorded in Mexico. Then about 100 people were injured. In most cases, planktonic toxin accumulates in reef fish, namely moray eels, grouper, seriole, barracuda.
READ ALSO: 6 unusual ships that were endowed with almost superpowers
Although poisoning with ciguatoxin is quite rare, at one time they were enough to scare marine discoverers. Most Spanish ships were forbidden to fish at sea. They caught fish only when real problems with food began on the ship. However, even then, sailors tried to identify (as they thought) a poisonous fish by visual inspection and throwing a silver coin into their ear. So, if the silver turned black, the sailors threw the fish overboard.
>>>>Ideas for life | NOVATE.RU<<<
If you want to know even more interesting things, then you should read about why zelenka is not used in Europe and where does the "diamonds".
A source: https://novate.ru/blogs/010420/53993/