OF FISHES IN GENERAL. 
35 
The dietical ufes of fifties are to us the moll important 
a nicle of their hilftory, a part that is happily free from 
that uncertainty and darkncfs in which many other cir- 
cu mftances relating to their manners and economy are 
ft'U involved. All fifti whatever, and particularly thofe 
■Without the tropics, are capable of being converted into 
TOh olefome food. Every European filh, while in fea- 
^ on ’ is nutritive; the various methods of preparing 
drefting them are detailed by the Authors to whom 
that Province belongs. Such difquifitions cenftitute the 
lll ftory of an art, but they are not the objects of fei- 
ence. 
fifties, in general, when out of feafon, are unwhole- 
^ me, and even pernicious ; and this is more efpecially 
16 with the oily kinds ; fuch as the herring, the 
mackerel, the eel and the falmon. So little is this faft 
tended to, that the eating of the latter ol thefe fifties, 
at an improper feafon, has been the immediate caufe of 
Hn e P’demic fever. Some of the fifties that frequent the. 
ftorcs of the Wejl-Indian iflands, are faid to be poifon- 
0Us : that they are naturally fo, however, may be juftly 
fttmftioned; though there can be no doubt of their be- 
, ' <3 
°mnig pernicious in certain circumftances. If they feed 
'T° n c °ppcr-banks, their food may contain fo great a 
quantity of the poifon combined with that metal, as may 
render their flefti noxious ; and the fame confenuence 
win r • 
entue if they devour the feeds of fome poifonous 
nts ^uit grow in thefe parts of the globe. 
^ he improvement of the arts tends greatly to extend 
^ dominion of man over the inferior animals ; the art 
na c igation, in particular, may be faid to have enm- 
ete d his conqueft of the ocean, and brought a vail ac- 
E a ceffion 
