44 FISH CULTURAL ASSOCIATION. 
Mr. BLAcKForD thought that a law should be passed so that 
all fishermen would be obliged to take out a license for each net 
put into the water, and be obliged to make returns or figures to 
the number of fish or pounds of fish caught by each and every 
net. In this way statistics could be obtained which would be of 
great benefit to the United States Fish Commission, and we could 
see whether fish were on the increase or not. 
The thanks of the Association were offered Mr. LAMPHEAR 
for his very carefully prepared statistics. 
The meeting then adjourned until 11 A. M..the next day. 
SECOND DAY’S PROCEEDINGS. 
Wepnespay, March atst, 1880. 
THE meeting “was, called to order by the President; Rivm@ 
RoosEVELT, who introduced Professor W. O. Atwater, of Wes- 
leyan University, Middletown. Conn., who read a long and very 
interesting paper on the nutritive qualities and values of various 
kinds of fish, comparing them with the composition and valua- 
tion of animal foods, such as beef, mutton, pork, venison, etc. 
The subject to which your attention is invited this morning 
is the study of the food values of some of our different sorts of 
fish, as shown by chemical analysis. The field of investigation 
is comparatively new, and, as respects American fishes, hitherto 
almost untrodden. It is, nevertheless, important. 7 
At the instance of Professor Baird, Secretary of the Smith- 
sonian Institution and United States Fish Commissioner, 
through whose interest in the matter an appropriation for the 
purpose has been secured, I have been engaged, with my assist- 
ants, for some time past in the analysis of samples of our more 
common food-fishes. From a preliminary report of this work, 
soon to appear, the following figures are taken. Before giving 
the results, however, permit me a few words by way of intro- 
duction. 
