Vill. NUTRITIVE QUALITIES OF SALMON. 
More and more attention is being paid by the consuming public 
to the nutritive qualities of the food products offered them, and this 
is especially true as regards fishery products. 
The proper functions of food are two-fold, first, to furnish protein 
for building and repairing the body, and second, to supply energy 
for heat and muscular work. Foods which supply an abundance of 
both at a reasonable price are of the greatest importance from an 
economical standpoint. 
Despite the great prominence of the salmon industry, but little 
time has been devoted to it by the chemist. . 
Prof. W. O. Atwater was the first American investigator to devote 
any portion of his energies to the analysis of Pacific salmon. In 
Farmers. Bulletin No. 142, United States Department of Agricul- 
ture, he gives the following analysis of canned Pacific coast salmon: 
Water, 63.5 per cent; protein, 21.8 per cent; fat, 12.1 per cent; ash, 
2.6 per cent; fuel value per pound, 915 calories. 4 
C. F. Langworthy, in ‘“‘Fish as food’”’ (Farmers Bulletin No. 85, 
United States Department of Agriculture), gives the following 
analyses of fresh and canned Pacificecoast salmon: 
Fresh salmon, California (sections): Refuse (bone, skin, etc.), 5.2 
per cent; water, 60.3 per cent; protein, 16.5 per cent; fat, 17 per 
cent; mineral matter, 1 per cent; total nutrients, 34.5 per cent; fuel 
value per pound, 1,025 calories. 
Canned salmon—refuse (bone, skin, etc.), 3.9 per cent; salt, 1 per 
cent; water, 59.3 per cent; protein, 19.3 per cent; fat, 15.3 per cent; 
mineral, 1.2 per cent; total nutrients, 35.8 per cent; fuel value per 
pound, 1,005 calories. 
Dr. Harvey W. Wiley gives the following as the composition of a 
Pacific coast. salmon (species not given):> ~ 
Fresh—Water, 63.61 per cent; protein, 17.46 per cent; fat, 17.87 per-cent; ash, 1.06 
per cent. Dry—Protein, 52.31 per cent; fat, 49.05 per cent; ash, 2.92 per cent. 
On page 137 of the same work Dr. Wiley gives the following as 
the mean of three samples of Pacific coast canned salmon: 
Composition of canned salmon.—Mean of three samples. Water-free substance: 
Protein, 53.52 per cent; fat, 40.52 per cent; ash, 6.24 per cent. 
a The unit used to show the fuel value is the ‘‘calorie,”’ and is the amount of heat which would raise the 
temperature of about 1 pound of water 4° Fahrenheit. 
b Woods and their adulteration, etc. By Harvey W. Wiley, p.135. (8 vo., Phila., 1907.) 
; 147 
