No. 7.] NUTRITIVE VALUES OF FISH. 409 



given showiDg the composition of a list of animal foods. Thus 

 it appeared that, while medium beef has about three-fourths 

 water and one-fourth solid, milk is seven-eighths water and one- 

 eighth solids. Assuming a pint of milk to weigh a pound, and 

 speaking roughly, a quart of milk and a pound of beefsteak 

 would both contain the same amount — about four ounces — of 

 solids. But the quart of milk would not be worth as much for 

 food as the pound of steak. The reason is that the nutrients of 

 the steak are almost entirely albuminoid, while the milk contains 

 a good deal of carbohydrates and fats, which have a lower nutri- 

 tive value. According to the valuations given, taking medium 

 beef at 100, we should have for like weights of flesh free from 

 bone : — 



Medium beef 100.0 Bluefish 85.0 



Fresh Milk 23.8 Mackerel 86.0 



Skimmed milk 18.5 Halibut 88.0 



Butter 1 24.0 Lake trout 94.0 



Cheese 155.0 Eels 95.0 



Hens' eggs 72.0 Shad 99.0 



Cod (fresh fish) G8.0 Whitefish 103.0 



Flounders G5.0 Salmon 104.0 



Halibut 88.0 Salt Mackerel 111.0 



Striped bass 79.0 Dried codfish 346.0 



These figures dififer widely from the market values. But we 

 pay for our foods according, not to their value for nourishing 

 our bodies, but to their agreeableness. Taking the samples of 

 fish at their retail prices in the Middletown, Conn., markets, the 

 total edible solids in striped bass came to about $2.30 a pound, 

 while the Connecticut shad's nutritive material was bought at 

 44 eents per pound. The cost of the nutritive material in one 

 sample of halibut was 57 cents, and in the other $1.45 per pound, 

 though both were purchased in the same place at the same 

 price, — 15 cents per pound, gross weight. In closing. Professor 

 Atwater referred to the widespread but unfounded notion that 

 fish is particularly valuable for brain food on account of its 

 large content of phosphorus. Suffice it to say that there is no 

 evidence as yet to prove that the flesh of fish is specially richer 

 in phosphorus than other meats are, and that, even if it were so, 

 there is no proof that it would be on that account more valuable 

 for brain food. The question of the nourishment of the brain 

 and the sources of intellectual energy are too abstruse for speedy 

 solution in the present condition of our knowledge. 



