CHAPTER XII. 



FISH AS FOOD. 



The following valuable article on this subject was published in the 

 Farm & Fireside in 1884, signed E. T. N.: 



"The International Fisheries' Exhibition at London, has just closed, 

 after a session of several months. It brought together a large number of 

 persons engaged in this industry, and perhaps a still larger number of 

 those who are studying the questions which the industry involves. It 

 must follow that the papers read in the conferences are of great and per- 

 manent value. Sir Henry Thompson, who was introduced as "one of the 

 most eminent surgeons in the world," spoke on the topic which stands at 

 the head of this article. The United States commisioner, who rose to 

 move a vote of thanks to Sir Henry, pronounced the paper the most im- 

 portant which had been read, and added the hope that it might be trans- 

 lated into many languages and be widely distributed. It is our purpose 

 to review the paper in order to make public its wealth of facts. With 

 these statements we shall feel free to use the exact language of the report 

 when it best suits our purpose, and that without marks of quotation. 



The author first attempts to show the value of fish by comparing it 

 with other well-known forms of food. In every hundred pounds' weight 

 of healthy flesh not artificially fattened, whether beef, mutton or poultry, 

 and from which the bone has been removed, about seventy-five to 

 seventy-eight pounds of water are present, and are separated as such from 

 the solid matter in the processes of cooking and digestion. Perhaps 

 twenty-five pounds are solid matter and alone contains the nutritive 

 material. Of this nutritive material about sixteen or seventeen pounds 

 consist of the essential elements of flesh, and of the solid parts of the 

 blood. These are variously named by authors the flesh-forming, the 

 nitrogenous, or the albuminoid elements. Of gelatine, with some allied 

 compounds, about one to two pounds are present. These are also nitro- 

 genous, but are quite distinct from the former class, and possess less 

 nutritive value. The fat is very variable in quantity, but may be estim- 

 ated -at from two to four pounds per hundred. The remainder of the 

 twenty-five pounds of solid matter consists of salts, mineral, and even 

 metalic substances, all of which are essential parts of the body. 



In one hundred pounds of fish without bone, from seventy-five to 

 eighty-five are water, leaving as an average about twenty pounds of the 

 solid or nutritive. (The ^arp has 20.2 per cent.) The nitrogenous may 

 amount to eighteen pound-, but it is more frequently^ from twelve to four- 

 teen. The gelatine-forming portion is in excess as compared with the 

 flesh of land animals. The fat varies with the season and with the species 



