[27] POISONING BY RED CODFISH. 1053 



normal odor, and the firm consistence of its flesh, no matter whether 

 its color is more or less rosy or red. 



(4) The red of the codfish is produced by a cryptogamic vegetation, 

 the nature of which has not yet been fully determined. Some think it 

 is a fungus, others an alga. 



(5) This cryptogamic vegetation which develops both on spoiled and 

 on sound codfish, seems to be aided in a special manner by the salting 

 process; but it has nothing whatever to do with putrefaction. 



(0) Only those codfish whose flesh is more or less putrefied contain a 

 poisonous substance, which in man niay produce symptoms similar to 

 those of cholera. 



(7) This poisonous substance has been isolated and characterized by 

 several experimenters as a kind of ptomaine, or an alkaloid produced by 

 putrefaction. 



(8) Protection against all danger of such poisoning is easy, simply 

 by not eating any codfish which has at all begun to putrefy. As re- 

 gards sound codfish, they should invariably, before being eateu, be care- 

 fully cleaned, soaked in water, which should be changed several times 

 for twelve hours, and above everything else should be well cooked. 

 Thorough cooking of all articles of food of animal origin is in fact the 

 best means of destroying all hurtful parasites and minute organisms 

 which they may contain. 



(9) In peremptorily prohibiting the sale of red codfish, which is abso- 

 lutely harmless unless it is at the same time spoiled (a measure which 

 can not be justified by any reasons, and which has done considerable in- 

 jury to an important branch of our commerce), a product which has lost 

 nothing of its alimentary value, and which is of great and every-day im- 

 portance to the laboring classes, has been unjustly depreciated and con- 

 demned. 



(10) We therefore consider it our duty to advise that, as soon as pos- 

 sible and in the most positive manner, this prohibitory measure be re- 

 voked, because it is based on a manifestly erroneous interpretation of 

 facts. 



Bordeaux, France, April 25, 18SG. 



