138 American Fisheries Society 



practice of holding fish until they are bad, and then salting 

 them, but it is recognized that it is in the public interest 

 neither to destroy food that can be used, nor to market fish unfit 

 for food, and it is recognized as legitimate and desirable to 

 develop a means of saving fish wherever they have, through 

 the unavoidable exigencies of the fishing business, come near 

 to spoiling. 



It would not be profitable to present this complicated sub- 

 ject any further here. Enough has been said to show that the 

 loss in salting fish, by solution of protein in brine, is very great ; 

 some discussion has been presented which will serve to show 

 that losses of this kind are preventable, and the probable direc- 

 tion in which the remedy for this great loss will be found, and 

 also, let us hope, to assist in convincing the skeptics that scien- 

 tific work on this aspect of the salting process would be worth 

 while. It is of the greatest importance that research work be 

 undertaken for the purpose of discovering the conditions under 

 which the cell proteins are digested and pass out, and for ascer- 

 taining the conditions under which these processes may be 

 arrested. Specifically, such questions as follow should be 

 answered : Once the permeability of cells has been increased by 

 abnormally high or low temperature, does this increased per- 

 meability persist after a normal temperature has been restored ? 

 When autolysis is set in action by a bruise, do autolytic enzymes 

 aflfect only the part bruised, or do they escape and attack 

 the uninjured cells, destroying them also? To what extent 

 does the acid of rigor mortis accelerate autolysis and can this 

 acceleration be prevented by early application of salt? To 

 what extent is loss of soluble material in brine due to rough 

 handling, and to what extent to other factors ? Can advantage 

 safely be taken of the removal of products of protein decompo- 

 sition by brine to salvage fish that are on the point of spoiling? 



INFLUENCE OF METHOD OF CLEANING FISH ON SALTING 



In the various processes of salting or pickling fish, the fish 

 receive no preliminary treatment, or may be gibbed, beheaded, 

 split through belly, split through back, or cleaned perfectly by 



