1114 REPORT OP COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [6] 



bility of flesh, we have three experiments on the flesh of the lobster: 

 one with a small young lobster, a second with a large female, and a 

 third with a large male of the same species. The duplicate digestions 

 gave fiiirly concordant results ; the average relative digestibility being 

 for the young specimen 87.81, for the large female 79.06, and for the 

 male C9.13. This shows plainly some modifviug influence in the flesli 

 itself. In composition, so far as the solid matter is concerned, there 

 was no appreciable difference in the three samples. Bearing in mind, 

 however, these possible variations, it is very evident from our results 

 that the average digestibility of fish flesh is far below that of beef sim- 

 ilarly cooked. In but two instances, in the case of shad and white fish, 

 does the digestibility of fish flesh approach that of beef, although, from 

 the average of our experiments, several areas easily digestible as mut- 

 ton, lamb, and chicken. 



Pavy^ states that fish with white flesh, such as the whiting, &c., are 

 less stimulating and lighter to the stomach, or more easy of digestion, 

 than fish with more or less red flesh, as the salmon. Our experiments 

 confirm this statement so far as digestibility is concerned. Thus the 

 average digestibility of the salmon and trout is considerably below the 

 average of the more digestible white fish. The diflerence between the 

 digestibility of the light and the dark meat of the same fish is some- 

 what striking, as in the case of the shad, where the digestibility of the 

 former was found to be 97.2."), as compared with bref, while the dark 

 flesh was 87.32, A similar diflerence, though very much smaller, is to 

 be noticed between the light and dark meat of the chicken. 



This diflerence in digestibility is in part due, without doubt, to the 

 amount of fat present, for, as Pavy states, in the flesh of white fish there 

 is but little fat, it being accumulated mainly in the liver of the animal, 

 while in red fish there is more or less fatty matter incori)<)rated with the 

 muscular fibers. For a similar reason, eels, mackerel, and herring are, 

 according to Pavy, less suited to a delicate stomach than some of the 

 white fish, and our exi)eriments show that in digestibility two of them 

 stand below the more digestible white fish ; mackerel, however, from 

 our single experiment with the white portion of the flesh, showed a com- 

 paratively high digestibility. In all of our experiments, however, with 

 white fish, we rejected the outer layer of dark flesh, except in the case 

 of the shad. The varying differences in digestibility are not to be con- 

 sidered as due wholly to differences in the amount of fat in the flesh; 

 thus the flesh of fresh cod contains but little fat, and yet it is one of the 

 most indigestible of the white fish experimented with. This agrees with 

 Pavy's^ experience " that it is a more trying article of food to the stom- 

 ach than is generally credited." Again, Pavy^ makes the following 

 statement, basv-d on his experience in fish dietetics, " of all fish, the whit- 

 ing may be regarded as the most delicate, tender, and easy of digestion." 



1 On food aufl dietetics, Amer. ed., 1874, p. 171. 

 Ubid., 1x17.-?. 

 3 Ibid., p. 172. 



