CONFERENCE ON THURSDAY, OCT. 25, 1883. 



Mr. S. WlLMOT (Commissioner for Canada) in the Chair. 



FISH PRESERVATION AND 

 REFRIGERATION. 



THE recent and persistent efforts to break up the Billings- 

 gate monopoly ; the establishment of new fish markets at 

 Elephant and Castle and Smithfield, and the reopening of 

 the Columbia Market ; and, crowning all, the International 

 Fisheries Exhibition, already visited by more than 2,000,000 

 persons, gives emphasis to the interest now evinced by the 

 public in all matters relating to the subject of fish supply, 

 and adds to the importance of any information pertaining 

 thereto. 



The subject-matter of this paper relates to the pre- 

 servation of fish by conditions of temperature, but that 

 this may be more clearly understood it will be well to first 

 consider the nature of the disorganising process we wish to 

 combat, and to briefly trace the steps of the investigators 

 that have led to the now generally accepted belief that all 

 putrefactive action is caused by living organisms. This 

 theory of putrefaction has taken half a century for its 

 development, but it has not met with the hearty and 

 prompt recognition due to its importance. 



Schwann, of Berlin, was the first to prove that living germs 

 are the cause of putrefaction, and in 1837 he made the 

 important announcement that when a decoction of meat is 



