FISH FOODS. 277 
“Sure! of Dublin bay herrings a keg, 
And an egg, 
Is enough for all sensible folk ! 
Success to the fragrant turf-smoke 
That curls round the pan on the fire ; 
While the sweet yellow yolk 
From the egg-shell is broke 
In the pan, 
Who can 
If he have but the heart of a man, 
Not feel the soft flame of desire 
Which inflames e’en the soul of a friar ? ” 
Sydney Smith, writing to Lord Murray, from London, in 
November, 1843, said: ‘I shall be obliged to you for the 
herrings, and tell me at the same time how to dress them; but 
perhaps I mistake, and they ought to be eaten naked.” Mr. 
Benjamin Bell, a famous surgeon of the last century, supposed 
the eating of fish to be on the whole a mischievous practice ; 
and Dr. Cheyne, a well-known physician of 1750, entertained 
similar views. The products of decomposition in fish are rapidly 
formed, and then act as poisons to the human system ; occasion- 
ally also living fish elaborate similar toxic substances. The 
widespread impression that much fish-eating entails a liability 
to skin diseases, and particularly of stale fish to leprosy, is 
founded on trustworthy scientific data, and has been confirmed 
by eminent authorities. One practical outcome of this beliet 
is shown by the abolition of fish from the dietary of the patients 
in the St. Louis Hospital for Skin Diseases at Paris. “ Perhaps, 
indeed, Gehazi, the grasping and dishonest servant of the 
Israelitish prophet in the Old Testament, fell a victim in his 
pursuit of the newly-cured Syrian to his greed of appetite, as 
well as to his avarice. If he fed while overtaking the chariot 
of Naaman, on such an unattractive, but eminently portable 
diet as dried fish, septic in its nature, his punishment was doubly 
justified. Certain is the fact that while in England the stale 
Cod, or carelessly pickled Halibut, are no longer consumed as 
food by the masses, leprosy has vanished from the land; yet 
in those countries where this enlightened policy is not pursued 
the fell disease is still rife. It is true, nevertheless, that the 
man who eats bad dried fish, though not of necessity a leper, 
is still somewhat of a beast.”? Two hundred years, or so, ago 
cases of leprosy, and scurvy, and allied diseases were frequent 
throughout England; for at that time all sheep, and cattle, 
