276 ANIMAL FOOD EESOUECES OP DIFFERENT NATIONS. 



indeed as a condiment to the Asiatic islanders, but is 

 also largely used by the Burmese, the Siamese, and 

 Cochin-Chinese. 



The garum, or celebrated fish sauce of the Romans, 

 was principally made out of the Scicena umbra and the 

 mackerel, the entrails and blood being macerated in brine 

 until they became putrid : 



" Ezperantes adhuc scombri de sanguine primo, 

 Accipe fastosum munera oara garum." — Martial. 



Galen afiirms that this disgusting preparation was so 

 precious, that a measure of about three of our pints 

 fetched two thousand silver pieces. So delightful was 

 the effluvium of the garum considered, that Martial in- 

 forms us it was carried about in onyx smelling-bottles. 



Flat Fish. — Let us now glance at some of the principal 

 flat fish used for food. For the London market, and the 

 British public in general, soles (Solea platessa) are the 

 most important of sea fish. They are required by all 

 classes of society ; the higher classes get those of the best 

 quality, the poorer, the smaller fish known in the trade 

 as " tongues " and " slips." Two thousand tons of soles 

 are sent up by the railway from Brixham in a year. In 

 " London Labour and the London Poor," Mr. Mayhew 

 stated that in 1864 the number of soles sold at Billings- 

 gate Market was 97,520,000, and that the weight was 

 26,880,000 lbs., or 12,000 tons. Another good authority, 

 Mr. Poole, gave the number of soles sent to the London 

 market a quarter of a century ago as 100,000,000. 



The turbot (Fleuronectes m'aximus) is the rich man's 

 fish, its flesh being delicate, sweet and fine, and being so 

 valuable, the fishermen pay rather more attention to its 

 abundance or scarcity than to that of almost any other 

 sea fish. Six to seven hundred tons of turbot are received 

 yearly in London. 



The Jews are forbidden by law to eat anything that 

 has no scales ; the question is whether the turbot has or 

 has not scales, and upon this decision depends whether 

 the Jews may or may not eat turbot. 



