132 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
tomato sauce, long-matured herrings in tomato sauce, and 
herrings matured 10 years in mustard sauce were all examined 
by the same method. In all cases 4 grms. of the flesh were ground 
up into a very fine emulsion, and made up to 250 c.c. with water, 
and then several portions of 50 c.c. each were titrated. In all 
cases the quantity of N/10 NaOH required for neutralisation 
was from 1-3 to 1-4 c.c. 
Similar estimations were made with the same quantity 
of flesh made into an emulsion with 50% alcohol, but just 
the same results were obtained. 
Amino-acids were, therefore, present in exceedingly 
small traces—so small that one may neglect them, and the 
quantity of these substances present was not affected by the 
length of the maturation period, not even by a prolonged 
period of maturation. Whatever is the nature of the latter 
process it is, therefore, not the same as the process of ripening 
of herrmgs pickled m brine. 
Tixperience shows that the excellence of a canned pilchard, 
herring or sprat depends primarily on the nature of the raw 
material—the “ processing’? may make the quality of the 
product better or worse, how much better or worse depends 
on the extent to which the profit-factor is allowed to mfluence 
the details of factory management. Thus, herrings deep-cooked 
in oil (the French process) at a higher temperature than that 
of the autoclaves employed for sterilisation and cookmg 
combined (the Norwegian process) make a better (though a 
different) product. But which of the two processes may be 
employed is a matter of policy in which the profit-factor 1s, 
perhaps, the main consideration. Many brands of herrings in 
(the almost unique) tomato puree, which the British public 
have apparently been trained to regard as the only possible 
sauce, at present on the market are very inferior stuff. In 
