228 Dp Davy's Observations on Fish, 



These results I would wish to have considered merely as 

 I have proposed in introducing them, viz., as approximate 

 ones. Some of them may not be perfectly correct, owing to 

 circumstances of a vitiating kind, especially the time of keep- 

 ing. Thus, in the case of the whiting, which was brought 

 from Chester, its specific gravity, and its proportion of solid 

 matter may be given a little too high, owing to some loss of 

 moisture before the trials on it were made. Casting the eye 

 over the first table, it will be seen that the range of nutri- 

 tive power, as denoted by the specific gravity, and the pro- 

 portion of solid matter, is pretty equable, except in a very few 

 instances, and chiefly those of the salmon and mackerel ; the 

 one exhibiting a high specific gravity, with a large proportion 

 of solid matter; the other a low specific gravity, with a still 

 larger proportion of matter, viz., muscle and oil, and, in con- 

 sequence of the latter, the inferior specific gravity. A por- 

 tion of the mackerel, I may remark, merely by drying and 

 pressure between folds of blotting paper, lost 15*52 per cent, 

 of oil. Oil also abounded in the sea-trout and eel, and hence 

 the large amount of residue they afforded. 



Comparing seriatim the first table with the second, the 

 degree of difference of nutritive power of those articles stand- 

 ing highest in each, appears to be inconsiderable, and not 

 great in the majority of the others, exclusive of the liquids, — 

 hardly in accordance with popular and long-received notions. 



2. Of the Peculiar Qualities of Fish, as Articles of Diet. 



I am not prepared to enter into any minute detail on this 

 important subject, from want of sufficient data. 



That fish generally are easy of digestion, excepting such 

 as have oil interfused in their muscular tissue, appears to be 

 commonly admitted, as the result of experience, — a result 

 that agrees well with the greater degree of softness of their 

 muscular fibre, comparing it with that either of birds or of 

 the mammalia, such as are used for food. 



A more interesting consideration is, whether fish, as a 

 diet, is more conducive to health than the flesh of the ani- 

 mals just mentioned, and especially to the prevention of 

 scrofulous and tubercular disease. 



