288 MEALS MEDICINAL. 
in its first year it is called smolt, in the second sprod, in the third 
mort, in the fourth fork-tail, and in the fifth halj-fish. When 
Salmon is crimped immediately after its removal from the water 
its flesh remains more solid, and retains the curd, or the coagulable 
albumin, which becomes a milky curd after the fish is boiled ; 
but when the fish is kept a few days its flesh undergoes a change 
whereby the curd disappears; the meat then becomes more 
tender, and is improved in taste, or, as some enthusiasts declare, 
oily and balsamic properties are developed which render the 
flesh nutritious, and invigorating, diuretic, pectoral, and restor- 
ative. ‘‘ By the fishmonger,”’ says The Art of Cookery, 
“ Crabs, salmon, lobsters are with Fennel spread 
That never touched the herb till they were dead.” 
Tinned Salmon is a questionable form of food, because at times 
the can has not remained completely air-tight, or the fish being 
left, however short a time, within the can after it has been 
opened, acts on the tin, and poisonous products are formed. 
Byron has recorded the prevailing notion that in his day Salmon 
was thought to need serving with a corrective sauce of some 
kind :— 
“From travellers accustomed from a boy 
To eat their Salmon at the least with Soy.” 
The Tench (Tinca vulgaris), being of a golden yellow colour, 
was formerly commended, on the doctrine of signatures, for 
giving to persons with jaundice, and liver obstructions. It was 
further supposed to have some healing virtue in its touch. 
Izaak Walton says in his Compleat Angler: “The Tench is 
observed to be a physician to other fish; and it is affirmed that 
a Pike will neither devour, nor hurt him, because the Pike being 
sick, or hurt by any accident, is cured by touching the Tench.” 
FOODS, 
WirH respect to foods of divers sorts, which embody curative 
virtues whilst served at table by way of customary meals, certain 
desultory matters will not be out of place here. The only cure 
for a host of bodily derangements, such as gout, rheumatism, 
biliousness, and kidney troubles, is a stern attention to the diet, 
always being mindful that too much food prematurely wears 
out the digestive energies, and their parent organs, through 
