2ij 



hamlets ; recent cases, known to the writer, are in point. 

 Apart, however, from this latter danger, the consump- 

 tion of tainted fish is fraught with hazard, even to 

 individuals or races which are accustomed to it, for the 

 toxic products (ptomaines and toxins) of the putrefac- 

 tive bacteria are not only produced most rapidly and 

 abundantly in fish but appear to be abnormally 

 dangerous, while even the best of cooking will not 

 destroy some of them. Moreover the dangers arise at a 

 very early stage of decomposition as when fish is soft or 

 pasty, and before the sense of smell gives the danger 

 signal ; fish is unsafe at a stage when flesh meat seems 

 to be innocuous. 



Now the fish supply of the Presidency outside of 

 the comparatively high class n:arkets of Madras City, 

 of the fishing centres themselves, and of a few places 

 scantily served by fish in ice (and only then as regards 

 those who can pay the price) is in a very great degree 

 tainted ; little is beyond suspicion, the grand cause 

 being the tropical temperature which is precisely that 

 at which putrefactive bacteria are most active and 

 consequently taint most rapid. 



The boats afford insufficient protection to the fish 

 when caught, and the bulk of these are caught in the 

 day time ; the customs of the fishermen and the demands 

 of the immediate fresh-fish market /tr/^/V/ the gutting and 

 cleaning of the fish at sea so that the most putrescible 

 portions remain for several hours within the fish ; there 

 is no such thing in existence as a live car or contrivance 

 lor keeping the fish alive up to the shore ; the fish are 

 often hawked about on the beach for local sale before 

 being sent out to the outlying villages, where they 

 mostly arrive in a high state of taint if the distance 

 exceeds 5 miles, or to the curing yards ; the methods, 

 vessels, locale, and entourage at many curing centres 

 are primitive and faulty. Hence abundant cause, wholly 

 remediable, however, by degrees, for tainted fish whether 

 fresh or cured. 



There is however another cause, viz., the demands 

 of the market. On the West Coast, as mentioned above, 

 the bulk of the best cured fish is sent to Ceylon where 

 the regulations; forbid the entry of bad fish ; hence the 

 production of a salted and dried article which is far less 

 faulty than that supplied to inland markets, and is in 



