FISH AND HEALTH. 275 



ing the important questions whether fish as a diet is 

 more conducive to health than the flesh of the animals 

 usually eaten, and especially whether it prevents scrofu- 

 lous and tubercular disease. " I am disposed to think 

 they are," observes Dr Davy. " It is well known that 

 fishermen and their families, living principally on fish, 

 are commonly healthy, and (may I not say ?) above the 

 average'; and I think it is pretty certain that they are 

 less subject to the diseases referred to than any other 

 class, without exception. Dr Cookworthy has, at my 

 request, consulted the records of the Public Dispensary 

 at Plymouth ; and it appears that of 654 cases of con- 

 firmed diseases of the lungs, the probable result of 

 tubercles (234 males, 376 females), the small num- 

 ber of 4 only were of fishermen's families, which is in 

 the ratio of 1 to 163. The entries from which the 654 

 cases are extracted, Dr Cookworthy states, exceed 

 20,000. He assures me that, had he taken scrofula in 

 all its forms, the results would, he believes, have been 

 more conclusive." 



The returns of the Registrar-General render the fact 

 of this exemption of fishermen still more remarkable, 

 especially considering the prevalency of tubercular con- 

 sumption in the working-classes generally throughout 

 the kingdom. The cause of this sanatory action of fish 

 is ascribed to the presence of iodine in their composi- 

 tion. ei In every instance in which I sought for this 

 substance in sea-fish, I have found distinct traces of it, 

 and also, though less strongly marked, in the migratory 

 fish, but not in fresh-water fish." " That iodine," Dr 

 Davy goes on to remark, " should enter into the com- 

 position of sea-fish, is no more, perhaps, than might be 

 expected, considering that it forms a part of so many of 

 the inhabitants of the sea on which fish feed ; to men- 

 tion only what I have ascertained myself in the common 

 shrimp, in an unmistakable manner, and also in the 

 lobster and crab, and likewise in the common cockle, 

 mussel, and oyster." 



