92 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
Mr. Berenger-F 6 raud, in his very remarkable clinical examination of 
the cases of indisposition observed at Lorient among the crew of the 
Vengeance, has not made any personal investigation of the nature of 
the red codfish. He attributes it, according, as he states, to the few 
authors who have occupied themselves with this question, to the pres- 
ence of a small fungus, the Penicillium roseum. But, to begin with, 
what is this Penicillium roseum ? In the investigations made by us at 
the laboratory of hygiene at the Medical School of Bordeaux we made 
strenuous efforts to throw aside all preconceived notions and to de- 
scribe only what we had occasion to personally observe. 
The question before us was really not so much to specify the nature 
of the small organisms which constitute the redness of the codfish as 
to determine the conditions of their presence in the different samples of 
codfish submitted to us for examination. In making a general exami- 
nation of the redness in articles of food, we find that the small organ- 
isms containing erythrogen found in articles of food occur in greatly 
varying forms, from the Micrococcus p rod igiosus common in albuminous 
and amylaceous articles of food, to the numerous Bacilles erystrospores 
found in decaying albuminous substances, and from the isolated 
micrococcus to the composite forms, composed of two, three, or four 
elements, like the Micrococcus aurantius , or the gelatinous aggrega- 
tionscomposed of numerous elements, like the Bacterium rubescens. 
The red on the surface of the codfish shows itself in the shape of 
granular matter, developing in moist streaks in the folds and furrows or 
mingling with the outer layer of salt, as may be observed especially in 
the kind of codfish called u green codfish.” In laying bare the lower 
layers one finds absolutely no redness in the fiesh. 
On the dry codfish, that which belongs to the large red kind, for in- 
stance, the colored matter shows itself on the surface in diffused forms 
of a whitish and rosy appearance $ and when the outer layer has been 
removed, it is found again in the form of an infiltration in the inter- 
stices between the bundles of muscles and having a bright blood -red 
color. In cutting into the codfish we-find these red infiltrations in all 
the fissures, depressions, and interstices, more particularly in the inter- 
osseous and la tero- vertebral furrows. It is this condition of being 
almost entirely penetrated by the red color which gives to the dry cod- 
fish, when held before a bright light, a very marked rosy transparency. 
In examining the red substance under the microscope we find, after 
it has been dissolved in water or glycerine, that it is composed of ( 1 ) 
crystals of sea-salt $ (2) lanceolate lamellae ) (3) a granular substance $ 
(4) muscular elements ; (5) special elements, which we shall describe 
below. 
(1) The .crystals' of sea-salt do not show anything of special interest 5 
by the side of them we find some rusty fragments which appear to be- 
long to the particles of iron sometimes found among sea-salt. 
