of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



83 



III.— THE FOOD VALUE OF THE HERRING. 



By T. H. Milroy, M.D., B.So., F.R.S.E., Professor of Physiology, 

 Queen's College, Belfast. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 



Previous Analyses of Herrings, ..... 83 



Methods of Analysis, ...... 85 



Analyses of May Loch Fvne Herrings, . . . .86 



„ July ,, .... 88 



,, ,, September ,, ,, . . . .89 



,, ,, October ,, ,, . . . .90 



,, ,, November ,, ,, . . . .92 



,, December Helmsdale ,, . . . .93 



,, Loch Fyne ,, . . .94 



,, ,, ,, Lochboisdalc . . .95 



.. February ,, . . .96 



Tables of Ratios, ....... 97 



Summary of Results, ....... 101 



Remarks on Nutritive Value of Spent Herrings, with some addi- 

 tional Tables illustrating differences in Composition of thsse 

 Fish, ........ 103 



The Nutritive Value of the Herring at Different Periods. 



It is extremely important that we should possess definite information 

 with regard to the changes which the herring undergces during its 

 development. This is especially true with regard to the chemical changes 

 in its composition, as, merely looked at from the economic standpoint, it 

 is advisable to determine the periods at which the fish is most valuable as 

 a food and those at which it is least valuable. As a problem in biological 

 chemistry, it is also extremely important to arrive at accurate information 

 with regard to the metabolic changes which take place in the fish before, 

 during, and after, the spawning period. 



On looking up the literature on the subject, I have been unable to find 

 any work dealing with the changes in composition of the edible parts of 

 the herring which must occur during the reproductive life of the fish. 



There have, of course, been analyses published of the chemical com- 

 position of the herring in the fresh, salted, and pickled conditions, but no 

 reference is made to the condition of the herring at the time of the 

 analysis beyond certain vague statements such as " in fine condition,''" 

 etc. Payen (" Subst. Alimentaires,"p. 488) gives analyses of salted herrings. 

 Konig, in his large work on " Nahrungs-Mittel/' Bd. i., pp. 201-7, gives 

 some of his own analyses as well as those of others. 



Almen gives a very detailed account of the analyses of the flesh of 

 various fish in a communication by him to the Royal Society at Upsala 

 ("Analyse des Fleisches einiger Fische. Mitgeteilt der Koniglichen 

 GeseDschaft der Wissenschaften zu Upsala, am 7ten April, 1877 * — Upeala 

 1877.) 



Among the fish examined by Almen was the little herring (Clupea 

 harengus v. ?nembiw). By far the most important contribution cn the 

 subject of the food value of fishes is undoubtedly the report by Atwater 



