Journal of Ethnopharmacology,

23 (1988) 121- 126

121

Elsevier Scientific Publishers Ireland Ltd.

Letter to the Editors

TETRODOTOXIN

AND THE ZOMBI

PHENOMENON

Dear Sirs, The folklore of Haiti has long been an area of fascination for scholars of the disciplines of anthropology, biology and religion. African, Caribbean and French heritage has made a unique blend of customs and beliefs for this long independent nation. Great interest has been focused on the zombi legend/phenomenon. Belief is widespread that by magical or other unknown means a person may die and be transformed into a creature of living death called a zombi. This living-dead entity is said to have no will of his own, but can be made to perform slave labor. Opinion is divided as to the process by which this transformation can be made to occur. Some Haitians appear to prefer the magical explanation, while others believe that a poison is used by malevolent practitioners to cause the change. Interest has now been intensified by the work of E.W. Davis, who was able to investigate the question by direct interview with Haitian physicians, health officials, and practitioners of folk magic/medicine. He identified a variety of plant and animal specimens which were said by practitioners to be the ingredients of the elusive zombi poison (Davis, 1983). In addition to his preliminary paper, two other sources of information on his work are now available - his doctoral dissertation (Davis, 19871 and a popular book in which he describes his methods in detail (Davis, 19851. The central pharmacologic finding of his work was that puffer fish (order Tetraodontiformes) were consistent ingredients in the putative poison preparations which he collected. The poison known to be associated with them, tetrodotoxin, might account for some aspects of zombi phenomenon. Review of the three sources raises questions in two areas. First, do the poisons actually contain tetrodotoxin? Second, is the method of the fieldwork consistent with ethical anthropologic practice?
Tetrodotoxin

This compound is known to be an extremely potent neurotoxin. It kills by paralysis of peripheral nerves, causing death by suffocation as the muscles of respiration are impaired. In addition it lowers the pulse, blood pressure and body temperature (Kao, 19661. Therefore, in sublethal doses it is possible
03788741/88/$02.45 0 1988 Elsevier Published and Printed in Ireland Scientific Publishers Ireland Ltd.

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that tetrodotoxin could cause apparent death by diminishing these vital functions. Such a sublethal poisoning, followed by burial, recovery and exhumation is the central feature of Daviss hypothesis. It is of anthropological interest that fish which are known to contain this compound are present in the recipes of folk magic practitioners. But do the powders which Davis obtained actually contain tetrodotoxin? Let us examine the available evidence. The first attempt at identification of a toxic ingredient among the collected powders were made at Daviss request by Dr. Leon Roisin of the New York State Psychiatric Institute. Davis reported in his original paper that Roisin found that intraperitoneal injection of poison produced a cataleptic state in a rat (Davis, 1983). In a recent telephone conversation, Dr. Roisin told me that, as he recalled from 1983, one of the powders did appear to cause some sedation in a rat after percutaneous injection. Dr. Roisin stressed, however, that the compounds he tested were crude mixtures, that the findings were very preliminary, and required detailed study for confirmation. He has not received additional samples for this purpose (Raisin, 19871. In October 1984 Davis submitted two samples of poisons, collected in 1982 and 1984, to Professor C.Y. Kao of the State University of New York, Downstate Medical Center, for analysis together with specimens of puffer fish. Because the currently used analysis is based on bioassay. Professor Kao enlisted the aid of Professor Takashi Yasumoto of Tohuku, Japan, who is a recognized world expert in the specific chemical analysis of tetrodotoxins. They found traces of the compound in the livers of the fish, but virtually none in the poison samples. Further, they noted that extracts of the samples were highly alkaline (pH 101. Since tetrodotoxin is unstable at this pH, they concluded that insufficient active compound could be present to produce any significant biologic effects (Yasumoto and Kao, 19861. In his original paper Davis stated that the poisons he collected in 1982 are currently being analyzed at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm and at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland (Davis, 19831. He has not reported since on the results of these studies. In his doctoral dissertation Davis states that laboratory tests have shown the presence of tetrodotoxin in the samples, and that they are active topically (Davis, 19871.His only reference for these assertions is his 1983 paper, which documents no such findings. Thus the burden of proof would seem to be on Davis to show that tetrodotoxin is an active ingredient. Instead, he would appear to be asking that the skeptics prove that it is not present. Davis has recently argued that Kaos finding of alkaline pH is not pertinent since the poisons are dry powders, hence do not have a pH, and they are administered directly into blood by way of an abrasion created for this purpose. Blood, being highly buffered, he claims, would prevent denaturation of tetrodotoxin (Davis, 19861. This seems a bit far-fetched. First, the

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powder is not anhydrous, we can assume, and thus there is residual moisture which could cause denaturation in a humid environment. Second, we really are not too sure how the poison is administered (Davis, 19851. Davis argues further that the ingredients vary in proportion with each compounding, and that tetrodotoxin is seasonal in its concentration in puffer fish liver (Davis, 19871. Both of these observations are reasonable, but they miss the point that the burden of proof is on him and not on his critics. Finally, there is the question of the stability of tetrodotoxin under extreme temperatures. Davis insists that the compound is heat-stable and thus could withstand the rigors of preparation (Davis, 19851. While there is evidence that the compound can withstand short periods of 100-116C (Kao, 19661,it does not necessarily follow that it will be stable at the much higher temperatures of roasting to the point of incineration.
Pharmacologic and so&cultural interactions

One of the central arguments of Daviss work is that tetrodotoxin, as a psychoactive drug, has actions that can only be understood within a particular social context and belief system. This is an interesting idea and deserves some thoughtful examination. Davis advances the hypothesis that any psychoactive drug has within it a completely ambivalent potential. Pharmacologically it induces a certain condition, but that condition is mere raw material to be worked by particular cultural or psychological forces and expectations. This is what the experts call set and setting of any drug experience. Set in these terms is the individuals expectations of what the drug will do to him; setting is the environment - both physical and, in this case, social - in which the drug is taken (Davis, 19851. For some classes of drug this is a viable idea. It is generally agreed that this formulation is appropriate for many of the hallucinogens. Most other psychoactive drugs are not so dependent on set and setting. Amphetamines, barbiturates, opiates and alcohol have well-defined pharmacologic actions which are influenced only partially by the ambient environment. Strictly speaking, tetrodotoxin is not a psychoactive drug. It is a peripheral nerve poison and does not cross the blood-brain barrier in significant concentrations. It is under no imaginable circumstances a drug suitable for recreation or personal experimentation. Thus it seems a bit wide of the mark to describe it as having a completely ambivalent potential. It induces a very definite condition - death. Sublethal poisonings are a scientific curiosity.
Tempest in a teapot

The amount of public information and notoriety which has been generated on this matter is very much out of proportion to the modest nature of Dav-

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iss findings. It is interesting that a known toxic fish is an ingredient of folk magic preparations in Haiti. But the purported poisons themselves seem to have no pharmacologic activity. No new drug has been discovered, and there is little reason to suppose that any new medical knowledge is likely to emerge from this inquiry. Oddly, there has been an explosion of interest in the public media which compares unfavorably with the paucity of data published in peer-reviewed scientific journals. Articles have appeared in OMNI, Newsweek, Newsday, Time, Harvard Magazine and The American Scientist. There have been many newspaper articles and television shows devoted to these findings. Davis has written a popular book, and a movie has just appeared. How are we to explain this curious ratio of fact to publicity? Davis gives us a clue in his popular book, The Serpent and the Rainbow, p. 175: But while my backers still sought evidence of a single chemical that might explain zombification, I had become more and more impressed by a people who shared no such obsession with rational causality. I wanted to know the magic (Davis, 1985). Thus it would appear that for Davis the question of actual existence of tetrodotoxins in the poisons is of little importance, which may explain his neglect in making their absence more explicit. For those of us who are still obsessed with rational causality, the integrity of scientific method is still important.
Ethical concerns

Examination of Daviss work suggests three areas of ethical inquiry. These are the methodology of the fieldwork, the question of withholding negative data, and the citation of sources. Method of the fieldwork In 1982 Davis was hired by Nathan Kline and David Merrick to go to Haiti: My assignment as outlined succinctly by Kline was to travel to Haiti, find the voodoo sorcerers responsible, and obtain samples of the poison and the antidote, observing their preparation and if possible documenting their use (Davis, 19851. He was able, apparently, to accomplish some of this in the astonishingly short time of a few weeks in the summer of 1982. He identified several folk practitioners and bought preparations from them with the explanation that he wanted to use them on an enemy (p. 541,or alternatively that he needed them for scientific study. The second part of the mission, documenting the use of the poisons, as Davis quotes Kline as having discreetly put it, was not accomplished. Evidently Davis attempted to commission the creation of a zombi, and in a long bargaining session finally agreed on a price (p. 2021. All that remained to accomplish as far as he (Kline) was concerned was the

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documentation and medical study of a victim as it (sic!) came out of the ground (p. 2161. This method seems highly improper. It is one thing to pay folk practitioners for their recipes in order to look for new drugs. It is quite another to offer very poor people money to do things to other people which are thought to be able to kill them. And this under the protective coloration or, indeed, the mimicry of science! How odd that this lapse of moral coherence went undetected and unexamined by all the popular media. Selection of the data Davis is vulnerable to scientific criticism for not having reported that careful analysis of the collected powders showed no evidence of significant tetrodotoxin. This is also a curious lapse, since the anthropologic analysis would not have been damaged very much, if at all. It is not too strange that folk practitioners have not managed to preserve this fragile molecule in their preparations. But it is bad science to publish only favorable data. Citation of sources Compared to the above concerns, this criticism is minor. While reading his dissertation in the Harvard archives, I was surprised to find six sentences from a 1983 manuscript which I had submitted for publication and which I sent to Davis as a courtesy. No reference to my manuscript was included in the dissertation. This suggests some lack of attention to academic detail.
Conclusion

All things considered, this project does not cast science in a very good light. Davis owes the academic community an apology.
What About Haiti?

Haiti has many needs. Democracy is struggling to issues of health, nutrition and development are manifest. is in need of stimulation. The Haitian people are doing siege of terrible calamities. They need our support. emphatically do not need is sensationalistic attention unusual folk practices.
References

reemerge. Critical Capital investment their best under a What they most to some of their

Davis, E.W. (1983) The ethnobiology of the Haitian zombi. Journal of Ethmpharmacology 9. 85104. Davis, E.W. (1985) The Serpent and the Rainbow, Warner Books, New York. Davis, E.W. (1986) Zombification theory: will it wash? Harvard Magazine July/August, lOl- 102. Davis, E.W. (1987) The ethnobiology of the Haitian zombi. Doctoral Thesis, Department of Biology, Harvard University Archives.

126 Kao, C.Y. (1966) Tetrodotoxin, saxitoxin and their significance in the study of excitation phenomena. Pharmacobgkal Reviews 18,997 - 1049. Roisin, L. (1981) Personal communication, July 30. Yasumoto, T. and Kao, C.Y. (19861 Tetrodotoxin and the Haitian zombie. Tozhn 24, 747 - 749.

William H. Anderson Massachusetts General Boston MA 02114, U.S.A.

29 March 1988 Hospital