in relation to Diet. 231 



fish ever come into greater request as articles of food, the 

 facility with which they may be preserved, even without salt, 

 by thorough drying, would be much in favour of their use. 

 I lay stress on thorough drying, as that seems essential, — 

 for preservation, I believe even hygroscopic water should be 

 excluded. Even in the instance of those articles of food 

 which can be preserved in their ordinary dry state, the ex- 

 pulsion of this water would be advantageous under certain 

 circumstances, were it merely on account of diminution of 

 weight. Thus, referring to the second table, it will be seen 

 that the Pemican, carefully prepared in the Portsmouth 

 Victualling-Office, lost by thorough drying 13*75 per cent., so 

 much being the water it contained in a hygroscopic state, — 

 a lightening of weight that, to the Arctic land explorer, could 

 not fail to be welcome and useful. 



The inference regarding the salutary effects of fish de- 

 pending on the presence of iodine, in the prevention of tuber- 

 cular disease, might be extended to some other diseases, espe- 

 cially to that formidable malady goitre, the mitigation or 

 cure of which has, in so many instances, been effected by 

 iodine ; and which, so far as I amaware, is entirely unknown 

 amongst the inhabitants of sea-ports and sea-coasts, who, 

 from their situation, cannot fail to make more or less use of 

 fish. 



Amongst the many questions that may be asked in addi- 

 tion to those I have proposed, I shall notice one more only, 

 and that in conclusion. It is, whether the different parts of 

 the same fish are likely to be equally beneficial in the man- 

 ner inferred, — the beneficial effect, it is presumed, depending 

 on the presence of iodine. From the few experiments I have 

 yet made, I am led to infer, reasoning as before, that the 

 effects of different parts will not be the same, inasmuch as 

 their inorganic elements are not the same. I may instance 

 liver, muscle, and roe or milt. In the ash of the liver and 

 muscle of sea-fish, I have always found a large proportion 

 of saline matter, common salt abounding, with a minute por- 

 tion of iodine, — rather more in the liver than in the muscle, 

 — and free alkali, or alkali in a state to occasion an alkaline 



