effort for a short time, let us now see what is the com- 

 position of fish. There is a closer resemblance, at first 

 sight, perhaps, than many persons would expect to find. 

 Notwithstanding that the fish is an inhabitant of water, 

 and cannot live out of it, the proportion of that element 

 in the animal's structure exceeds only by a small amount 

 the proportion which is present in land animals. In other 

 words, the solid constituents of fish as a class, and there 

 are important exceptions here and there, are but little 

 less in weight, than those which the flesh of cattle 

 contains, and which are already before you. 



In one hundred pounds of fish without bone, from 

 seventy-five to eighty-five are water, or rather more than 

 three-quarters of the whole ; leaving, say, about twenty 

 pounds of solids as a mean estimate. Of these, about 

 twelve to eighteen pounds are nitrogenous compounds. 

 The most important, or flesh-forming principle, is less 

 in quantity than in meat, and there is a rather larger 

 proportion of gelatine ; they are placed in one group here, 

 for further analyses of fish are required before accurate 

 quantitative results are forthcoming in relation to this 

 question. 



The fat in fish varies in quantity greatly, somewhat 

 according to the condition of the fish and season, but 

 mainly with the different species. It is less than one 

 pound in the hundred in sole, whiting, and haddock ; much 

 the same in turbot, brill, cod (without liver), and dory. 

 It is a little more in the plaice, and rises to seven pounds 

 in the hundred in the herring, to twelve or more in the 

 salmon, fifteen or sixteen in the mackerel, and even to 

 thirty in the eel* In all these it is dispersed throughout 



* I am indebted for these amounts to the recent researches of 

 Dr. J. Kcenig, kindly forwarded to me by Professor Church, author of 

 the excellent South Kensington handbook on " Food." 



