CCXXXV11 



FISH AS FOOD, OR THE REPUTED ORIGIN OF DISEASE. 



410. The following notes on fish as food (exclusive of the remarks 



in the commencement of this report) or 



^ General observations on a fi me( ]i c ine, as a cause of sickness or the occa- 

 sion of accidents, have been collected during 



the last few years (see Indian Medical Gazette, January and February 

 1871). In investigating- the effects of a fish diet upon the population 

 of a district, it becomes necessary first to take into consideration the 

 condition of the people generally, or very erroneous conclusions may 

 be arrived at. Thus, during the Burmese war of 1852-53, the Indian 

 native army suffered severely from scabies and low forms of skin 

 disease, due, it was commonly asserted, to their eating fish conjoined 

 with their poor diet. The European troops had a scorbutic taint, a 

 result, it was argued, of an insufficient supply of vegetables. On the 

 Malabar or western coast of India, leprosy, intestinal worms, and 

 severe skin affections are considered to be consequent upon a fish diet. 

 An important primary consideration should be what was the condition 

 of the people ? Was not impoverished blood, possibly arising from some 

 other cause, the true origin of these various diseases? In olden times we 

 read of leprosy, so common in Europe, being attributed to the consumption 

 of salt pork or fish in an unwholesome state. 



411. It has been asserted that the Asiatic conquerors of India 



have all been consumers of a more nourishing 



l^JZ&A food than rice and that" it may be safely 

 could they obtain it, now pre- argued that, if the people had been fed upon 

 vented by the depopulated state the simple diet of the inhabitants of the 



of the fisheries-a good cause for }{ ^ { conque sts would never have 



more care of them to be taken * ' , ,, ^ . , 



in future. occurred. The physical powers and moral 



courage, necessary to the achievements of feats 



of valour and conquest, have never yet been found in a people who, 

 like the degenerate races in the lowlands, live on grain deficient in 

 nitrogen, and eschew animal food/'' If this is admitted, how great 

 must be the moral responsibility of legislators, who, living amongst a 

 population such as exists throughout India, more than half of whom would 

 consume fish could they procure it, have permitted the depopulation of the 

 fresh-water fisheries, and allowed the destruction of so great a source for the 

 supply of animal food. Now that it clearly appears millions would eat fish 

 could they obtain it, surely the re-population and future protection of these 

 fisheries will be considered an important subject for consideration as a 

 means of supplying loss of physical powers and nervous energy. 



i412. Amongst the different races of the Indian Empire, fish as food 

 is held in various kinds of estimation. 

 The various estimations in ,->, , o- i t * 



which fish is held by the differ- Commencing at Sind in the extreme west, 

 cut races inhabiting the where the population are chiefly Mahomedans, 

 Indian Empire. this diet is almost universally esteemed ; even 



the siluroids are eaten, so long as they have large gill openings : in 

 fact, it is the Shias amongst this race who, following the Koran, appear 



