328 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



In other words, the pink patches of the Bacillus prodigiosus observed on cooked 

 meats, etc., seem due to conditions favored by moisture probably preceding- decom- 

 position rather than necessarily accompanying active putrefaction. 



The hygroscopic action of common salt, especially if accidentally adulterated 

 with chloride of magnesium, as in .salted and cooked meats, suggests that moisture 

 favors botli the development of the "pink" patches of bacteria and the reddening of 

 foul salt. 



• Those who had partaken of the "pink" meat and ''pink" fish or salted meat 

 did not suffer from any subsequent disturbance or illness. Nevertheless I believe 

 that "pink" cooked food stuffs caused by the invasion of the Bacillus prodigiosus 

 should be avoided where there are any lesions in any portion of the alimentary canal, 

 and especially where there are ulcerations about the intestines. 



The Bacillus prodigiosus has been long been known to spontaneously infect food. 

 It probably caused the so-called "bleeding bread" and " bleeding host" so supersti- 

 tiously dreaded during mediaeval history. When this bacillus occurred upon the 

 sacramental bread, the clergy stated that it was Christ's blood, in 1843 it came 

 almost as an epidemic in Paris, where it grew more especially on the bread made and 

 obtained in military bakeries. 



The Bacillus prodigiosus, even when injected in large quantities into the blood of 

 warm-blooded animals, fails to set up any symptoms. 



There is a special bacillus which gives a red color to milk, whilst another peculiar 

 bacillus communicates a blue coloration to milk. 



THE USES AND EFFECTS OF SALT IN PRESERVING- FISH. 



The success and value of all fish-curing, whether by salting, drying, or smoking, 

 consists chiefly in driving off the maximum possible advisable amount of water or 

 moisture contained in the muscles or fiesh and the skin of the fish operated upon. 



As an antiseptic, salt acts in two ways. A saturated salt solution coagulates 

 albumen, and hence bacteria (whose protoplasm is, of course, albuminous) cannot 

 live. Most antiseptics have this power. Besides its antiseptic properties, sufficient 

 salt prevents the continuation of life, which only occurs under more or less favor- 

 able chemical conditions. Thus sugar is a good food for bacteria. But an excess 

 of sugar, as in concentrated sirup, makes bacterial life impossible. 



Albuminous bodies are perhaps the best food for bacteria, yet, if concentrated 

 by drying, those albuminous bodies keep indefinitely. 



Small amounts of salt are food for bacterial life, partly because, perhaps like 

 most vegetables, probably every animal requires chloride of sodium (common salt) ; 

 and also partly because small quantities of salt tend to keep perishable articles damp. 

 Moisture is favorable to fungoid life, especially if the salt contains magnesium chloride, 

 which is almost always the case. 



Concentrated chloroform is also an antiseptic, while small quantities of chloroform 

 are alleged to favor bacterial development. 



Experimental bacterial cultivations on salted and pickled meats show that the 

 proportions of salt used in these food preparations have but very little destructive 

 action on the putrefactive bacilli found in diseased meat. 



