[HARRISON & KENNEDY] DISCOLOURATION OF CODFISH 103 



Another factor which must be mentioned is the increasing 

 competition from Norway in the world's markets. Where such 

 competition is keen it is of utmost importance to provide a fish 

 which is well cured, attractive in appearance, and which is not afïected 

 in any way by any kind of discolouration. The country which suc- 

 ceeds in putting up the best article and keeping it uniform from year 

 to year will undoubtedly secure a larger trade and obtain the higher 

 prices. 



As has been intimated, a number of investigations have been 

 carried on iii order to determine the cause of the discolouration of 

 codfish occurring in other countries, hence a short historical account 

 of these researches is necessary. 



li. Historical Resume. 



The occurrence of red colouration on food stuffs is of extreme 

 antiquity. Down through the ages we have many references to food 

 becoming red or bloody, and whilst this colour usually has been 

 ascribed to the well known Bacillus prodigiosus, it is most probable 

 that many forms were responsible for the coloured conditions described 

 by writers previous to the bacteriological era. 



Thus Lucan, in one of his dialogues, makes Pythagoras give, as 

 the reason for forbidding his followers to eat beans, the fact that 

 white beans, if placed in the moonlight, change into blood. In the year 

 332 B.C. (1) Alexander the Great experienced an outbreak of bloody 

 bread at the siege of Tyre, and as the blood was on the inside of the 

 bread, the augurs allayed the fears of the soldiers by the interpretation 

 that a bloody fate would fall on those inside and not on the outside 

 of the city. 



The phenomenon of the "bleeding host" was frequent during 

 the middle ages and as the popular explanation of the phenomenon 

 was that witches or unbelievers were the cause, numerous murders 

 and executions followed, which caused the remark of Scheurlen that 

 this saprophyte (B. prodigiosus) had caused more deaths than many 

 pathogenic bacteria. 



1819 the Province of Padua was set in commotion by the frequent 

 appearance of red spots on various articles of food. 



The reddening of salted and dried codfish has been known for 

 many years. Mauriac has mentioned references to this discolouration 

 in an old almanac published in 1838. 



The first paper of scientific interest, however, must be attributed 

 to the late Dr. G. W. Farlow, Professor of Botany in Harvard Uni- 

 versity. 



