TENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 127 
other animal foods, consists mainly of albuminoids, with more 
or less fats and very little of the carbohydrates. With this pre- 
liminary statement the following table of analysss of some of 
our most common food-fishes will be easily understood. 
As was explained in the article on this subject in the last 
report of the association, chemical and physiological investiga- 
tion have carried us so far as to enable us, when we know the 
chemical composition of different kinds of food, to determine 
approximately their relative values for supplying the wants of 
the body. Thus in Germany, where the most accurate and thor- 
ough investigation of these subjects has been made, it has be- 
come customary to compute the relative nutritive values of foods 
of similar kinds. We may, for instance, take as a standard four 
different kinds of flesh. Some are ordinary kind, as beef of 
medium quality. If we attribute a certain value to each pound 
of albuminoids and fats in this, and the same value to the same 
ingredients in other kinds of animal food, we may get at a valu- 
ation of each which will enable us to compare them with each 
other. 
In the table which follows the albuminoids are estimated as 
worth three times as much as the fats, weight for weight. That 
is, a pound of albuminoids is assumed to be equal in food value 
to three pounds of fats. A pound of carbohydrates (extractive 
matters in the-table) is assumed to be equal to three-fifths of a 
pound of fats. The nutritive valuations of a number of different 
kinds of animal food, as computed in this way, are given in the 
table on the following page. 
THE TABLE. 
For the sake of comparison the compositions and valuations 
of several other sorts of animal food are given with those of the 
fish. The figures for meats, game, fowl, milk, eggs, etc., are 
from European sources, few or no analyses having been made 
in this country. As will be noticed the first column gives the 
percentages of edible solids in the fish as received for analysis, 
some being whole, others dressed, ¢. ¢., with head, entrails, etc., 
removed. The remaining columns refer to the flesh, free from 
entrails, bone, skin, and other matters: 
