FISH FOODS. 279 
Proteid, and fat, are the chief nutritive constituents found in 
fish, of which the value as a source of energy depends upon the 
amount of contained fat. Fish further includes a considerable 
quantity of waste substance in skin, bones, etc. Lean fish 
are better tolerated by the stomach than the fat ones, and are 
apparently more easily digested, as a rule, than the same quantity 
of lean meat. In hot weather, and for sedentary persons, white 
fish, plainly cooked, is better than meat. Boiled Haddock is very 
suitable for an invalid, but containing innumerable small bones. 
Finnan Haddies, cured and dried at Findhorn, near Aberdeen, 
were originated through a fire in one of the fish-curing houses 
at Port Lethen, on the North Sea, which fire partly burnt a pile 
of lightly-salted, freshly-caught Haddock lying on beds of dry 
kelp. After the flames were extinguished these smoked fish 
were found to be so delicious to the taste, that from then until 
now no one at Port Lethen, or the larger fishing village a mile 
away (Findhorn), has ever cured a Haddock except by smoking 
it over seaweed. 
With respect to fish as specially stimulating the sexual 
functions, this opinion is open to question, and Dr. Pereira has 
pointed out the significant fact that maritime populations are 
not especially prolific. In the time of Elizabeth, on great 
occasions the stewards of noblemen provided dinner for their 
lord’s guests; beef, and venison for the rich, but salted fish, 
then known as “ Poor John,” also apple pies, for the humbler 
visitors. Beating the rolling-pin on the dresser served as a 
dinner bell. In the middle ages fish was a luxury obtainable 
only by the rich, and, except near the coast, it could never have 
been served in anything like a fresh condition, the consequence 
being that smaller folk had to subsist on fish imperfectly salted, 
(particularly during the Lenten Fast), and disastrous effects on 
the skin followed. Pepys complained: “* Notwithstanding 
my resolution, yet for want of fish, and other victuals, I did eat 
flesh this Lent.” Sir Henry Thompson has advised that as a 
rule fish should be roasted (in a Dutch, or American oven), that 
is, cooked by radiated heat, so that none of its juices may be 
dissolved away, and lost. Matthieu Williams commends equally 
for this purpose the side oven of a kitchen range, or a gas oven, 
these being practically roasters. He directs that as a matter 
of course the roasted fish shall be served in the dish wherein it 
is cooked. Here is a way of dressing a fish to make it taste 
