BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 91 
made experimental researches regarding such alkaloids (ptomaine) de- 
veloped in spoiled codfish, has discovered in socli fish, besides the alka- 
loids generally found in decayed animal articles of food, a particular 
kind of ptomaine, the gadinine. Other authors, among them Anrep and 
Bocklisch (1885), have also made an investigation of the ptomaine found 
in the decayed flesh of fish. 
As regards the red codfish, it should be stated that the reports on 
cases of indisposition caused by red codfish also make mention of a 
putrid odor of the flesh, of its softening, and its tendency to crumble 
to pieces. The red codfish which produced these cases of indisposition 
was certainly spoiled, the symptoms observed being those produced by 
animal articles of food which to a certain degree had become decom- 
posed ; but the redness has been given as the cause only in as far as 
one has been led to consider it as favoring a change of the flesh of the 
codfish. It may, however, be asked if this redness does not also show 
itself in codfish whose flesh is sound ; and, in our opinion, this is gen- 
erally the case. The redness is really an external phenomenon. Among 
a large number of codfish in which redness had shown itself there were 
found, just as among codfish which showed no redness, sound, compar- 
atively sound, and spoiled fish. 
These are the first results of investigations made by us at the labo- 
ratory of hygiene of the Medical School, assisted by Mr. Arti galas, 
professor at this school, and Mr. G. Ferre, superintendent of histolog- 
ical experiments. 
This first report is confined to the nature of the red color of the cod- 
fish, to the manner in which it spreads on the surface and inside the 
tissues, and to the relations which may exist between the presence of 
this red color in the interstices between the bundles of muscles and the 
change or decay observed in these bundles. 
The only observation known to science as regards the nature of the 
red color in the codfish was made by Mr. Megnin, a distinguished au- 
thority on micrography, to whom Mr. Bertherand had forwarded sam- 
ples of the red codfish which had caused the cases of indisposition at 
Algiers in 1884. Mr. Megnin considers the redness as a fungus growth 
of the family of the “ Protomycetes ,” and of the variety “ Coniothecium.” 
The characteristics attributed by him to these minute organisms are 
the following : “Bound spores of a very pale rose color, with granular 
contents, and a small kernel measuring from six to ten thousandths of 
a millimeter in diameter ; the largest of these spores are divided into 
two or four equal parts, which become new spores; a short mycelium, 
hardly discernible, in most of these diminutive spores.’ 7 
We should add, from a practical point of view, that neither Mr. 
Megnin nor the other persons who have studied the sanitary side of 
this question have made practical experiments by making animals 
eat of red codfish. We must say the same as regards ourselves. 
