IMPROVEMENTS IN PREPARING PISH FOR SHIPMENT. 
233 
(d) That drainage of the blood retards putrefaction. 
(e) That if the head and intestines are removed, and if the fish is suspended by 
the tail so that the blood is drained from the entire body, the fish will remain sweet for 
a considerable time without the use of ice. 
In none of the above experiments were putrefactive bacteria prevented from enter- 
ing the flesh or directly hindered in their action after entrance. Consequently, further 
investigations were made to determine the feasibility of delaying bacterial invasion. 
To do this the fish must be washed with a solution which retards the growth of bac- 
teria and is not injurious to the food qualities of the flesh. Various solutions were 
tried, but only one with success. In all cases control experiments were made on fish 
taken at the same time and subject to the same conditions, the only difference being 
that the control fish were not treated with the sterilizing fluids. 
(1) The first experiment was with a 0.1 per cent solution of salicylic acid in sea 
water. 24 squeteague, taken alive from the nets, were carefully dressed, washed with 
this solution, packed in a box, and allowed to remain for 24 hours. The temperature 
ranged from 73° to 70°. When examined the next morning there was a perceptible 
odor of putrefaction; the fish were soft and unfit for market. The control fish were 
not much worse. Similar experiments were subsequently made with the same solution, 
but none were successful. 
(2) The next preparation experimented with was a 10 per cent solution of potas- 
sium nitrate. 18 squeteague, cleaned immediately after being taken from the nets, 
were decapitated and thoroughly washed with this solution, and packed close together 
in a box. During the next 24 hours the weather was foggy, and the temperature 
ranged from 73° to 74°, at the end of which time decomposition had advanced to such 
a stage that the fish were totally unfit for shipment. There was no appreciable dif- 
ference between the fish subjected to the potassium nitrate and those of the control 
experiment. Six more trials were made with this solution, but always with the same 
result. 
(3) A 5 per cent solution of formalin was next used, but, as might have been pre- 
dicted, the fish did not keep, and they were as bad at the end of 24 hours as those 
of the control. 
(4) The next and most successful experiment was made with a 3 per cent solution 
of boric acid (B 2 0 3 ) in sea water. 24 squeteague were dressed immediately after 
being caught, some decapitated, and others packed without removal of the head and 
gills. All were merely washed in the above solution and then closely packed in a 
box. The weather was foggy and cloudy, the temperature ranging from 74° to 83°. 
When examined 24 hours later the fish were in good condition, without odor, and 
decomposition had evidently not begun; the flesh was hard aud firm, the eyes clear, 
and in fact one of the fish was declared by a native fisherman to have been taken 
from the water that very morning, and he was not readily convinced that it had been 
kept without ice for 24 hours. One of the squeteague was baked and served on my 
own table, and was pronounced excellent. It is needless to say that the control fish 
were in advanced stages of putrefaction and wholly unsuitable for food. 
In these experiments Avith boric acid the fish were in no sense u embalmed,” 
injected, or even preserved. The walls of the abdominal cavity, alter the removal of 
the viscera, were simply washed with a sponge that had been dipped in the solution. 
The success of the experiment is of course largely dependent upon (a) the immediate 
