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Production of Isinglass on the Coasts of India, with a notice of its 

 Fisheries. By J. Forbes Royle, M. D.* 



Isinglass is a substance well known in commerce, from its employ- 

 ment both in the arts and in domestic economy. It is the purest 

 known form of animal jelly, and is obtained from the swimming 

 bladder of a few kinds of fish, chiefly of the genus Sturgeon, the 

 Acipenser of zoologists. This is indicated by some of its continental 

 names, of which the English is no doubt a corruption; — thus, in 

 German, Isinglass is called Hausenblase, from hausen, the great stur- 

 geon, and blase a bladder. It is exported in the largest quantities 

 from the rivers of Russia, principally from those which flow into the 

 Black and Caspian Seas, but also from the Sea of Aral and the Lake 

 Baikal. The fishery affords employment to numerous individuals, and 

 is still further important from the fish, both in their fresh and in their 

 dried state, forming a great portion of the food of the inhabitants of 

 Russia. Some, moreover, are exported, the eggs converted into Ca- 

 viare, and the sounds or swimming bladders into Isinglass. 



The preparation and commerce of Isinglass are not of recent origin. 

 It is, indeed, remarkable for having been well known at the time of 

 the Romans, and probably at even still earlier periods. For we learn 

 from Pliny, as translated by Holland, " A fish there is named Icthyo- 

 colla, which hath a glewish skin, and the very glue that is made 

 thereof is likewise called Icthyocolla (that is fish-glue). Some affirm 

 that the said glue, Icthyocolla, is made of the belly and not of the 

 skin of the said fish, like as bull's-glue. This fish-glue is said to 

 be best that is brought out of Pontus,f the same also is white without 

 any veins, strings, or scales, and very quickly melteth or resolv- 

 eth." In comparing the different passages of this author, as well 

 as referring to the accounts of previous (as Dioscorides) as well as 



* We have been favoured with the proof sheets of a Pamphlet bearing the 

 above title, written under authority at the India House, and the very useful con- 

 tents of which we place before our readers. Our own observations on the same 

 subject, and which we intended for the present number, we must now reserve for 

 the 10th No, — Ed. Calcutta Journal Natural History. 



f Laudatur Pontica, Candida, et carens venis squamisque et quoc celerrime 

 liquescit. — Plinii, lib. 32, cap. xxiv. 



