I03 



"cure"; except in the cases when there are large 

 surpluses of fish, as when sardines and mackerel are 

 caught in masses, or when well-to-do curers — as at 

 Tellicherry — control fishermen for the sole purpose of 

 curing, it is the general rule that fish brought to the 

 curing yards, public or domestic, are already tainted. 

 Even where fish are caught purposely for curing, as at 

 Tellicherry, the delays and poor treatment often cause 

 incipient taint ; fish caught in the morning and not 

 brought to the yard till 4 p.m. are necessarily in that way. 

 But fish once tainted cannot be restored to soundness ; 

 decay may be arrested or, what is hygienically dangerous, 

 disguised or concealed, but its pristine soundness and 

 ivholcsoiueness are gone, since the alkaloidal poisons 

 (ptomaines) and toxins resulting from the action of 

 putrefactive bacteria in animal tissues, are not necessarily 

 destroyed by icing or curing or canning even when the 

 bacteria themselves are destroyed ; still less when they 

 are merely arrested in progress. But bacterial action is 

 not only more speedy and the resulting poisons formed 

 more readily in the less compact tissues of fish than in 

 those of other animals, but — experto crede — the poisons 

 are peculiarly deadly, simulating the symptoms of 

 cholera and other bowel diseases ; other diseases of the 

 digestive and intestinal apparatus are caused by the 

 use of putrid fish, and one great authority claims that 

 leprosy is the direct result. When we note that much of 

 the " fresh " fish sold outside city markets and practically 

 the whole of the salt and dried ("cured ") fish is tainted 

 either thoroughly or partially, often to a degree 

 insupportable to European stomachs, it becomes abso- 

 lutely necessary to deal with the subject at the source, 

 and not to disguise or merely arrest but to prevent even 

 the access of taint. At present everything is against 

 success ; the climate which gives only hours of soundness 

 when a cold climate gives days ; dearness of all preserva- 

 tives such as ice and salt ; dearness of steam or motor 

 fuel ; absolute ignorance by fishermen and curers ; 

 carelessness, possibly preference, by consumers. Hence 

 very careful and prolonged experiments will be needed 

 to ascertain methods which will be complete, cheap, 

 wholesome, and acceptable to the public. 



26. In Europe the necessity for preservatives is 

 admitted notwithstanding its climate, abundant ice, and 



