of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



259 



methods now available for preserving fish en masse in a suitable condition 

 for human food. These methods depend upon the discovery that certain 

 chemical substances retard or arrest the process of putrefaction. The 

 simple method at present in use for preserving fish until they can be con- 

 veyed to the great central markets, is merely to place the fish in ice, 

 which by maintaining a low temperature retards the development of those 

 micro-organisms on which the process of putrefaction depends. This may 

 be secured, however, far more satisfactorily with some chemical prepara- 

 tion. The gist of the whole matter comes to be, are such preparations as 

 used for this purpose dangerous to health 1 



In the newer processes for preserving fish en masse, after the removal 

 of the viscera, the first thing to be done is to remove as much air as 

 possible from the fish, by placing them in vacuo, and when this is done to 

 subject them, still in vacuo, to the action of a solution of common salt, 

 containing a small proportion of boracic acid. It is found that immersion 

 for a short time in such a saline mixture as this, under negative pressure 

 suffices to retard putrefaction ; thus the fish can be kept quite fresh for a 

 long time, and remain fit for human food. Boracic acid in the proportion 

 in which it exists in fish ' cured ' in this way is not deleterious to health. 



The whole question of the value of fish products, therefore, enters on a 

 new phase with (1), the improved methods of preserving fish at the time 

 and in or near the spot where they are caught ; and (2), with the manu- 

 facture of dietetic and commercial products which themselves command 

 a good price in the market. 



It is evident, therefore, that the fish-supplies which are so abundant in 

 the seas around certain remote but perhaps not very accessible parts of 

 our own and adjoining coasts, may be made available for the use of man. 

 Instead of looking merely to the development of a trade carried on by 

 swift steamers, plying between these parts and the markets where fish can 

 be disposed off, it is evident that if factories were planted here and there 

 on our coasts, where fish are known to be plentiful, a vast industry might 

 be created which will bring its reward to those who embark in it, and will 

 also be a benefit to the inhabitants of these districts. By establishing 

 factories for the manufacture of fish extracts, — for which there is a large 

 demand both at home, and especially on the continent, — of glue, gelatine — 

 manure from fish refuse — and by preserving fish en masse with the newer 

 and much improved methodSj it is evident that there is a new outlet for 

 enterprise, and prospects of a great development of the fishing industry 

 exactly in those localities which for one reason and another are the subject 

 of great commericial depression. The products of these factories are 

 prepared in such a condition that they will keep and can be despatched as 

 occasion requires, so that there will necessarily be less dependence on 

 means of communication and transit than is necessitated by the present 

 imperfect systems for the utilisation of fish and other marine animals. 



I understand that some such scheme as is outlined above is contemplated 

 by the Normal Company, and already steps have been taken to erect a 

 factory on the West Coast of Scotland. 



Many other products of commercial value are obtainable from fish, or 

 from closely related animal products, and the manufacture of the one may 

 be economically combined with that of the other. 



All this points therefore to a ' new departure ' in the utilisation of the 

 ' harvest of the sea,' and is another instance of the advantage of the appli- 

 cation of science and scientific methods to the purposes of commercial 

 etiterprise. There cannot be any doubt that such countries as Sweden 

 are far ahead of us in the utilisation of fish products, and it is to be hoped 

 that under the vigorous impulse given to this question by the recent 



