( 'II AIT. XXV!. 



The Nutriment in Fish. 



385 



Ki-h 

 nice 



Quantity of 

 Nitrogenous 

 Bean-forming 

 ingredients. 



14-00 



6 IA 



Quantity of 

 non-asotiied 



lir.it .gil mi; 



print 



700 

 H465 



Quantity of 

 mineral 



* ter. 



100 

 0-62 



Quantity of 

 Carbon. 



9 1 ."> 

 3600 



4.". It is obvious that in nitrogenous alimentary matter fish is 

 a little more than two aud a half times as rich as rice, or, in other 

 words, will Berve, in this respect, to support two and a half times as 

 many human beings. 



46. This table indicates also that fish and rice are good com- 

 plements of each other for mixture towards the composition of a 

 dietary, the one being rich in what the other is poor in, and I put 

 this forward to meet the objection that men cannot live on fish 

 alone. True : but it matters not to my calculations whether a 

 certain amouitt of fish will suffice by mathematical calculation to 

 alone support a million people, or mixed in practice with nine 

 times as much other food to keep alive and in working health ten 

 millions. The result is the same ; an additional amount of food 

 representing the lives of one million has been thrown into the 

 supply market, and it serves by so much to make the other food go 

 further, let alone that it also cheapens it. 



47. I may add that in a country where the diet is chiefly of 

 vegetables, salt is more required than elsewhere, so that salt-fish 

 would meet a want. In practice there is a call for it. In Trichi- 

 nopoly, for instance, as well as other places, it sells for twice the 

 price of cheap butcher's meat. If in demand even as an expensive 

 luxury, much more should it be so if made cheap and plentiful. 

 That it is nut cheap at present is attributable, I think, to the 

 supply being unequal to the demand ; for in the fish-curing yards 

 salt is given by Government at cost, not monopoly, price. Curing, 

 however, as well as fishing, stands much in need of development, 

 while it must fairly be admitted that if salt-fish cannot be made 

 cheap, it fails as a i'amine-piv\ vntive food, still it is contended that 

 with plentiful cheap fish, cheap salt, cheap labour, and cheap rail and 

 s.m carriage, the presumption is that it can be made cheap. It may 



be admitted that if salt fish are only an appetizing relish rather 



THE BOO IN INDIA. 2 C 



