130 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [June, 



Farlow ascertained that the redness was present in troublesome amounts 

 only durincjj the hot season, and disappeared with the return of cold 

 weather ; also that it was rarely to be found until after the fish had 

 been landed from the vessel, though occasionally it began on board. 

 Considerable moisture as well as heat seemed necessary for its best 

 development. A careful microscopic examination convinced the pro- 

 fessor that the redness was due to a very minute plant, the Clathrocystis 

 roseo-persicina. This plant consists merely of minute cells, tinged 

 with red coloring-matter, and imbedded in a mass of slime. The cells 

 as usually seen seem to be arranged without order, but under more 

 favorable conditions for observation they are found grouped in spheroidal 

 masses. This plant is closely related to Clathrocystis cernginosa, a 

 common species occurring in fresh-water ponds, and which exhales a 

 peculiarly unpleasant odor when decaying. The Clat/irocystis found 

 on codfish is very widely diffused both in Europe and America, being 

 abundant enough in the marshes near Gloucester. It does not flourish, 

 however, at a temperature below 65° Fahr. At Gloucester this minute 

 plant was found in large quantities on the woodwork, from which it 

 could easily be communicated to the fish. Also. Prof. Farlow's in- 

 vestigations led him to conclude that the same microscopic alga was 

 found on the Cadiz salt used by the fishermen for preserving their fish. 

 The presence of the alga in the salt is accounted for, doubtless, by its 

 being derived from the vats or evaporating places along the coast where 

 the salt is made. (Prof. Farlow at the same time discovered a second 

 parasite, which he called Sarcina mo7-rJmce^ occurring along with the 

 alga above mentioned.) Curiously enough, also, the same peculiar 

 redness has been found on salt pork in the region of Gloucester, but it is 

 not at all certain that it is the same microscopic growth which causes it. 



Economic Effects. — Eaily in 1SS6 the French ^Ministry of Com- 

 merce prohibited the sale of this reddened fish throughout all French 

 territory, but this prohibition has since been suspended until the matter 

 could be thoroughly investigated. 



That this parasite tends to cause decomposition by breaking up the 

 tissues and giving occasion for the formation of other compounds may 

 be true, but that it is itself neither poisonous nor the direct cause of 

 the poisonous matter has been demonstrated over and over again by 

 experiments in eating this reddened flesh where it was free from de- 

 composition, and no harm has ever thus occurred. Careful exper- 

 iments made on the reddish parts of codfish have failed to find any 

 poisonous alkaloids there ; while these ptomaines were found in the fish 

 that had Ijegun to decay. 



The reddening seems, then, rather to be an occasional attendant upon 

 the cause of poisoning than directly connected with the cause itself, 

 which is the more or less advanced stage of the putrid decomposition 

 of the flesh of the codfish. This decomposition can always be detected 

 bv examination of both the outside and the inside of the flesh by feeling 

 and smell. Wlience it results that codfish may be eaten with impunity 

 when it has its normal odor and a firm consistence of the flesh ; but it 

 should be carefully avoided when there is an}' putrid smell about it, and 

 its flesh has become soft and cnunbling, no matter whether redness is 

 present or not in either case. 



