300 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



quicker on a wet windless winter's day than during a dry Lot summer's day with a 

 brisk breeze. Others credit the bright rays of a full clear moon with causing rapid 

 decomposition of freshly caught fish; but there seems to be no foundation for this 

 statement. 



INEFFICAOY AND INJURY OF CHEMICAL PRESERVATIVES. 



Common salt, brine, boracic acid, tartaric acid, niter, sugar, burning sulphur and 

 aromatics, boro-glyceride, limewater, shea or vegetable butter, powdered charcoal, 

 flour, sawdust, or antiseptics, as well as forcing under mechanical pressure chemical 

 solutions into fresh fish, alike fail to keep fish from decomposing when applied in the 

 usual commercial proportions. Chemicals which "preserve" fresh food injure diges- 

 tion. Hence the employment of all such chemicals in fresh food should be illegal. 



The medical and chemical professions should unanimously protest against the 

 introduction of chemicals into fresh food. Of course salting, drying, curing, smoking, 

 preserving in oil, pickles, vinegar, mustard, sugar, spices, alcohol, and other familiar 

 methods of household cookery are not to be included in the term chemicals. v Prac- 

 tically, "preservatives" like boric acid and a host of other public and secret methods 

 are rarely used till the "fresh" food is more or less "on the go"; that is to say, till 

 the first stage of decomposition has set in. This trade trick is an old dodge to hide 

 the tainted taste of stale provisions. 



THE FAILURE OF ICE AS A PRESERVATIVE AGENT. 



The thickness of fishes and certain qualities of their skin cause slight variations 

 in the freezing-point of the different kinds. The freezing-point of fish is a few degrees 

 below that of water' or the ordinary commercial ice at 32 F., which, even were it used 

 in large excess, could then only superficially and incompletely chill the exterior layers 

 without practically affecting the temperature of the interior of a thick fish's body. In 

 all conditions and circumstances ice spoils the freshness, firmness, and flavor of fish 

 by rendering it, prior to putrefaction, insipid, soft, and flabby. 



Supplying moisture, ice circulates the filth contained in the foul fish trunks. In 

 the United Kingdom, by coasting vessels, fishing is seldom carried on during Satur- 

 day afternoon or on Sunday; fish caught on Friday night and often days previously, 

 especially during continued storms, fogs, and calms, could not reach Billingsgate till 

 Monday morning, and the consumer late on Monday, wheu it would never be less than 

 three days old and often more. Trawlers sometimes stay out at sea for ten days or 

 more at a time, icing their fish as they catch it, and only return to laud their fish on the 

 exhaustion of their supply of ice. Indeed, much of the best prime trawl-caught fish 

 sold at Billingsgate is from 3 to 10 days old. The London fish trade alone is now 

 (1889) said to consume upwards of 1,000 tons daily of ice during rhe summer mouths. 



Ice is an expensive, bulky, rapidly perishable, wasteful product. The present 

 (1889) average wholesale winter or minimum price of rough artificial ice is as low as 

 lis. the ton when purchased in quantities of 2 tons or more, and the average price of 

 artificial ice in winter bought by the smaller fishmongers and costermongers is l.v. the 

 cwt., or at the rate of £1 the ton. Even in winter, in London the price of natural 

 Norwegian ice is often £1 10*. the ton, which is popular in Billingsgate and other fish 

 markets, where also actually crushed natural ice at Is. 9^. the cwt., or £1 15s. the ton, 

 is customary. Being imported from the metropolis, ice in most fishing districts is, 



