98 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



The percentage of Fat in the Flesh. 



Analyses were made, a part of the muscle substance 

 being taken from each, fish in each sample. Males and females 

 were separately analysed. 



At the beginning of the season the flesh contained on 

 the average about 2-J per cent, of fat and 75 per cent, of water. 



At the beginning of September the flesh contained about 

 33 per cent, fat and about 47 per cent, water. 



At about the end of September the flesh contained about 

 20 per cent, of fat and about 56J per cent, of water. Later 

 samples, taken after spawning, would have contained still 

 less fat and more water. 



The Food Value. 



It is impossible to indicate precisely, as the " food 

 economy " pamphlets and other literature pretend to do, 

 what is the nutritive value of the herring. Winter-caught 

 herring have a very low food value, but summer-caught fish 

 have a correspondingly high value because of their richness 

 in digestible fat. This fat is not massive, but is very thoroughly 

 incorporated among the muscle fibres. Fresh herrings taken 

 in the autumn, winter, and spring months, and sprats taken 

 at the same time are inferior articles of food compared with 

 cured herrings which are taken in the summer months. "Full " 

 herrings are superior articles of food, not only because they 

 contain the proteid-rich roes and milts, but also because they 

 are fish with a high fat- contents. 



Fat-rich foods are of course more " seasonable " in winter 

 than in summer, so that the rational practice would be to 

 retain the summer- caught, fat-rich herrings until the cold 

 winter months. This is, of course, done by the process of curing 

 in brine. The salt-curing is also advantageous in that it extracts 

 a certain proportion of the water from the flesh, rendering 

 the latter a more concentrated food stuff. The salting may 



