ccxl 



410. A great deal has be<!ii written and said about the natives of 

 - „ , ,. . Iiuiia preleirinfj small fish to lariio ones; 



Large flsli ot uiuch luoio , • . f . . „ e> > 



value, wei-lit for weit'lit, tliau thereloie the destruction ot try oug:ht not to 

 smnll ones, wliicU putiufy rapid- be put a stop to, Or the poorer classes might 

 'y- suffer. There is no exception throughcnit the 



British possessions in India and Burma where small fresh- water fishes 

 ol)tain so great a value as large ones, taking- weight for weight — one 

 inaund of large fish realising- I'rom 30 to 50 and sometimes 100 per 

 cent, above what a maund of small fish does. The latter have to be sold 

 quickly, because, being- \isually immature, decomposition sets in ra])idly. 



417. Fish as food is employed in many ways in Asia, which it is 



„. , , . unnecessary to specify in detail. Fish roes are 



Fish as food. . , u i i • i n • • r 



eitlier salted or dried. Coarse isinglass is 



pi-epared from various marine forms, and exported to China from Bombay : 

 towards the Arabian Sea mostly from the percoid forms : in JNIalabar 

 chiefly from the siluroids : and at the mouths of the Ganges and down 

 the Burmese coasts from both siluroids, polynemi and other genera. 

 Salt and dried fish is largely consumed in the Madras and Bombay Presi- 

 dencies; also in Sind; but far inland, where the Hindu element is strong, 

 it does not find such a ready sale. Oils of two kinds are obtained — the 

 " nieiiiciiial" from the livers of sharks and other eliondrojiterygious or carti- 

 la'dnous fishes: and the " simple" from either marine or fresh-water species. 



418. Fish employed as food may act injuriously on the system, 



,,. , ^ . occasioning' poisonous symptoms, and this 



Fish eaten may occasion . i- V ii ■ /i i i ■ i- i 



poisonous Bjmptoms more or irrespective ot tiieir flesii being diseased or 



less severe, uud duo to several underg-oing juitrefactive ciianges. There may 

 '-'""^'^s- be gastro-intestiiial irritation, or great ner- 



vous depression, with coldness of the body and extremities. Fish may 

 occasion indigestible or poisonous symptoms if eaten, which may be due 

 to their age : thus some, which are eatable when young, have been found 

 to set up irritable or poisonous elfeets as they become large, as Caratix 

 /'a lla,e, ahorse mackerel, which it is illegal to sell in some places should it 

 weigh above 3 jlhs. Sometimes these results are attributed to the breeding 

 season ; thus, on the Indus, in the Central Provinces, and elsewhere such 

 causes have been adduced by local observers in the foregoing reports, and in 

 Europe it has been observed that the eggs and milt act as great irritants. 

 Oecasionally S(une fish in Europe have been found to be unwholesome just 

 before the breeding- season, and tiiey have been considered unfit for food. 

 But this is not the case in all ; thus the mackerel and other marine fishes 

 are extensively eaten at this season, and in Asia the shad, Clupea palasah, 

 and tlie inangoe fish, Fulynemus jxiradisevs, are excellent up to the ])eriod 

 they have deposited their eg-g-s, after whieh they become thin, liabbj' and 

 positively unwholesome. Thus the unwholesomeness of kelts, or female 

 salmon, which have spawned, but not yet gone to the sea so as to have 

 recovered and become fit for food, has been known from ancient times. 

 Dr. Gerard Boate, Doctor of Medicine to the State in Ireland, observed 

 (1645) — " of the leprosie, which in former times used to be very common, 

 especially in the province of Munster, whieh was filled with hospitals 

 expressly built for to receive and keep the leprous persons. This horri- 

 ble and loatlisome disease was causml tlirough the f;iultaud foul gluttony 

 of the iniiahitauts, in the unwholesome devouring- of foul salmons 



