in relation to Diet. 233 



combination of the starch and iodine, similar, it may be, to 

 that of spongy platinum, in effecting the union of oxygen and 

 hydrogen. 



In seeking for iodine in animal substances by incineration, 

 it may be well to keep in mind, that, experimentally con- 

 sidered, the liability to error lies in underrating, rather than 

 in overrating the result by the methods employed, and that 

 mainly in consequence of more or less of loss of iodine being 

 sustained in the process of combustion, incineration, and 

 evaporation used. To illustrate this by a simple experiment, 

 I may mention that a portion of water, equivalent to about 

 1525 grains, in which were dissolved 10 grains of common 

 salt, and *09 grain of iodide of potassium, was quickly evapo- 

 rated to dryness by boiling. Previously, the iodine could be 

 detected in the mixture by the test I have used ; but not 

 afterwards, when the residual salt was dissolved in the same 

 quantity of water ; proving how there had been a loss of the 

 iodine in the operation of boiling ; a loss chemists are fami- 

 liar with, of substances in themselves not volatile, carried 

 off suspended in aqueous vapour. 



In stating the comparative exemption of fishermen and 

 their families from pulmonary consumption, as indicated by 

 the Plymouth Dispensary return, I have not given the total 

 number of this class of persons. This deficiency I am now 

 able to supply. From information which I have received, for 

 which I am indebted to the Registrar- General, it would ap- 

 pear, that of the total male population of Plymouth (24,605), 

 the number of fishermen is 726, exclusive of 37 pilots. This 

 large proportional number renders the fact of their exemp- 

 tion the more remarkable, and especially comparing them 

 with a class of the population, altogether different in their 

 habits, and, it maybe presumed in their diet, using fish only 

 occasionally when abundant and cheap, — these are the cord- 

 wainers or shoemakers, whose number altogether (males) is 

 608. Now, on consulting the Dispensary return, I find, that 

 the total number of this class that have died of the disease 

 under consideration, has been 37, viz., 19 males and 18 

 females ! 



