294 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



PROHIBITION OF UNBLED AND UNGUTTED FISH IN MARKETS. 



Parliament should prohibit unbled or ungutted fish entering any market or retail 

 shop or from being offered or exposed for sale. Prohibiting the sale of unbled or 

 ungutted fish which spoil unspoilt fish in their vicinity would be equally advantageous 

 and profitable both to the fisherfolks and to the public. A small fragment of bad 

 putrefying or putrid fish may destroy whole cargoes or loads of fresh dead fish. The 

 products and bacteria of fish putrefaction are preeminently diffusible, as is shown by 

 the smell of bad fish being so long retained and diffused. Exposing unbled and 

 ungutted fish for sale in markets or shops is, or should be, even under the public-health 

 act of 1875, the carrying on of an offensive trade, with a penalty not exceeding £2 for 

 the first offense, whilst a subsequent conviction may even amount to a fine of £200. 



In considering the preservation of fish, its red muscular fibers are comparatively 

 so few that for practical purposes the study of the pale fibers is sufficient. Whilst in 

 the higher animals used as food the muscles are arranged in close, thick, firm bundles 

 of long fibers, in fish nearly all the muscles are in the form of loose, short, soft bundles 

 arranged in narrow rings in a zigzag fashion, separated from each other by delicate 

 partitions of thin connective tissue. Except in the eel, salmon, and mackerel, fat is 

 usually absent in fish. The flesh of salmon yields from 63 to 68 per cent of water, 

 whilst that of ordinary whitefish furnishes from 75 to 82 per cent, which are much 

 larger proportions of water than is contained in meat. Not only in the intestinal 

 tract, but also in the blood, lymph, and tissues of healthy living sea and fresh-water 

 fish, active and multiplying bacteria are found. Though fish up to a certain point 

 apparently are able to tolerate the presence of these bacteria in their blood and lymph, 

 yet, should the vitality of their tissues become lowered by confinement, injury, star- 

 vation, or disease, the fish will probably be overcome and die. The same applies to 

 external and internal parasites, which almost invariably frequent healthy fish, which, 

 up to a certain point, are also tolerant of these parasites. 



On death, fish readily absorb water from moisture, whether naturally in the 

 atmosphere or foolishly supplied by the custom of using melting ice as well as by the 

 continual watering of fish on the fishmongers' slab. How excessively deleterious the 

 absorption of the moisture will be is apparent upon recollecting the filthy state of the 

 fish boxes, barrels, and baskets in the equally filthy fish boats, fish markets, and some 

 fishmongers' shops. 



NEED OF A DEPARTMENT OF FISHERIES AND A ROYAL FISH COMMISSION. 



Parliament should create a special department of fisheries, to be presided over 

 by a minister of fisheries, to protect, advance, and develop the fishing industries and 

 trades of the United Kingdom. This is necessary and imperative upon commercial, 

 financial, and economic grounds: 



(1) To supervise the production and provision of health} 7 , fresh, cheap, abundant 

 fish food for the poor and the comparatively poor. 



(2) To develop a large foreign and colonial export fish trade. 



(3) To gain a knowledge of available fishing-grounds. 



(4) To secure and maintain the naval supremacy of our empire from gradually 

 falling into the hands of foreigners by recognition of the fishery marine as the recruit- 

 ing school of the navy. 



