antiseptic wash or external application in the case of 

 fish, and are therefore usually removed, wholly or partly, 

 in cooking, etc., prior to consumption. Briefly the 

 choice lies between dansferous toxins and innocuous 

 antiseptics ; between abundance of wholesome protected 

 food, and a poor supply of deteriorating or deteriorated 

 products. 



Hence one of the main objects of experiment is the 

 due use of recognized and harmless preservatives and 

 preservative methods merely as supplementary to the 

 older ones of salt and sun, starting with the improve- 

 ment of the old and proceeding to the introduction of 

 new methods. 



27. As regards fresh fish not much can be done 

 without ice after the fish have come to shore, but with 

 the precautions already mentioned of gutting, cleaning, 

 washing with salt and borax, and very light salting, 

 much can be done on board, to which may be added a 

 sterilization process of recent development mentioned in 

 the proposals below and which will, in my own experi- 

 ence, keep fish fresh and wholesome, without the 

 slightest taint or fly-blow, for weeks in an English 

 summer. 



28. Cured fish.— Vi\i\. as regards the up-country and 

 export trade it is cured fish on which we must rely ; this 

 must for years be the stand by for popular consumption 

 and to this the main portion of our experiments will be 

 devoted. Hence (i) the present conditions and methods 

 and (2) improved methods must be considered. 



The present methods in brief are — 



(i) the drying of small fish on the sand without 

 gutting or salt ; the very crudest of processes, in which 

 the proportion of sand wilfully or accidentally mixed 

 with the product is outrageous, averaging at present 

 (Dr. Lehmann) -^'^ per cent, (and rising to my own 

 knowledge to 44 per cent.) of the total as against 6 or 8 

 per cent, a few years ago ; the huge excess now found 

 compared with previous years shows that the adultera- 

 tion is deliberate or at least avoidable, and the Indian 

 Fisheries Company is greatly hampered by the adultera- 

 tion which tends to choke the nascent industry in fish 

 fertilizer and oil ; 



(2) the salting and sun-drying of fish of all sizes 

 from sardines to shark ; 



