258 The Commercial Products of the Sea. 



Scales of fish are composed of alternate layers of mem- 

 branous laminae and phosphate of lime, to which they owe 

 their brilliancy. Perhaps the enamel or nacreous covering 

 of the scales of fish generally is capable of being employed 

 more largely in the arts ; it appears to be std generis, and 

 seems hitherto to have escaped the scrutiny of organic 

 chemistry. 



At the Vienna International Exhibition, the scales of 

 the captain fish {Heterotis), from Senegal, were shown, for 

 making fish-glue to stiffen and glaze ribands. 



The Royal University of Norway, Christiana, sent to 

 the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, in 1875, a diadem 

 made from fish scales and eyes ; and at the Paris Inter- 

 national Exhibition of 1878 two Swedish exhibitors showed 

 flowers and ornaments made of fish scales. 



Parures and ornaments for ladies, made of fish scales, 

 were at one time largely sold at the Crystal Palace, 

 London. 



At Newark, in the United States, large fish scales have 

 been for some time industrially employed. The fresh scales 

 are steeped for 24 hours in a solution of marine salt in order 

 to clean them. They then undergo five or six washings in 

 distilled water, which is renewed every two or three hours. 

 Each scale is then separately dried with a clean cloth, and 

 lightly pressed and left to dry. Finally, they are macerated 

 for an hour in alcohol, and rubbed dry. They then 

 appear like mother-of-pearl, and of a firm and elastic con- 

 sistence. They are worked up either plain or coloured, for 

 making artificial flowers, marquetry articles, and other fancy 

 work. The Chinese have a mode of grinding up fish scales 

 and using the powder as a dry pigment, to give a brilliancy 

 to parts of pictures. 



The skin of fishes is chiefly gelatinous, and is easily 



