No, 4(1921) brine-freezinC 45 



I compared with air-freezing, exudation of water from the fibres 

 and the formation of large ice-crystals are entirely obviated. If 

 the process be rapid enough the tissues remain physically and 

 chemically almost entirely unaltered ; the water within has been 

 frozen almost in the molecular state. This is what happens in the 

 case of brine-freezing and fully explains the difference in 

 behaviour and appearance of air and brine-frozen fish after 

 defrosting — the former soft and flabby with the cells and fibres 

 collapsed, the protoplasmic contents dried up and altered, and the 

 water formerly in combination within the cells and fibres, exuded 

 and free among the tissues. Can it be wondered at that fish thus 

 treated is insipid, flavourless, and ready to decompose still further.? 

 These ill effects are obviated by greater rapidity of freezing and 

 this is attained more or less eifectively in brine-freezing. Interest- 

 ing proofs of the absence of chemical or physical change in living 

 cells if frozen very rapidly have been afforded by experiments 

 carried out by botanists and physiologists, who have shown that 

 the life-activities of cells are not destroyed if frozen with great 

 rapidity, and may be resinned, when thawed again. This is practical 

 and conclusive proof, reinforcing satisfactorily the theoretical 

 deduction to the same conclusion. 



Methods of Brine-Freezing. 



In the middle of last century prior to the introduction of 

 mechanical refrigeration, the freezing of fish by immersion in a 

 mixture of salt and ice was in commercial operation in America 

 on quite an important scale. Subsequently artificial ice in Europe 

 and America became so cheap that the rough and ready method 

 of preserving fish for moderate periods and during transit by 

 packing them in crushed ice became universal and still continues 

 to hold its own in spite of manifold disadvantages. 



An improvement upon the original brine and ice method was 

 invented by Herr Wallem who about 1890 experimented in the 

 refrigeration of fish. Models of his apparatus are preserved in the 

 Trondhjem Fisheries Museum. His earlier model consisted of a 

 barrel having longitudinally disposed deep ribs or baffle plates 

 inside. After partially filling with a mixture of salt and crushed 

 ice, the fish (herrings) to be frozen were put in and the opening 

 closed, the barrel being then rolled along the ground to ensure 

 constant movement of the fish within, for even at this early stage 



