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TABLE III.-COMPOSITION OF EDIBLE PORTION OF ANIMAL FOODS FREED FROM BONE, SKIN, AND OTHER REFUSE.

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Salmon, in season, fat..

Desiccated cod.....

Smoked herring..

Salt mackerel..

Salt cod.....

Crabs, edible portion...

Crawfish, edible portion....

Lobsters, edible portion..

Scallops, edible portion .......

Mussels, shell contents.

Round clams, shell contents. ...

Oysters, shell contents, average..
Milk.....

Beef, lean, nearly free from fat..

Beef, round, rather lean ......
Beef, sirloin, medium fatness...
Mutton, side, well fattened.....

Pork, very fat......

Beef, side, well fattened.

Beef, flank, very fat..

Ham, smoked... . . . . .

Chicken, moderately fat
Cheese, whole milk

Cheese, skimmed milk.

Butter.....

Hens' eggs.

TABLE IV.-COMPOSITION OF FOODS AS FOUND IN THE MARKETS.

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Bluefish, whole....

Pickerel (pike), whole...

Cod, dressed

Alewife, whole..

Whitefish, whole..

Shad, whole....
Mackerel, whole.
Herring, whole...
Halibut, dressed
Salmon-trout, dressed
Eel, dressed....
Salmon, whole...

Smoked herring.

Salt cod.....

Smoked haddock...

Scallops, edible portion, muscle..

Oysters, edible portion.

Crabs, in shell. . . .

Lobsters, in shell...

Mussels, in shell.

Long clams, in shell..

Round clams, in shell..
Oysters, in shell..

Milk...

Beef, round, rather lean.
Beef, sirloin, rather fat.
Mutton, side, well fattened..
Fat pork, very fat..

Oatmeal...

Beans.

Wheat-flour, best quality...

Indian-corn (maize) meal

Potatoes.....

Beef, side, well fattened..

Beef, flank, very fat.......

Ham, smoked...

Chicken ...

Hens' eggs.
Wheat-bread.

Rice....

Sugar...

Turnips..

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FOODS.

Side, medium fatness..
Pork, very fat........
Smoked ham.
Milk, 8 cents per quart
Cheese: Whole milk..

Skimmed milk.

Salmon: Early in season.
When plenty.

Suppose a pound of beef of average fatness comparative costs oF PROTEIN IN ANIMAL and vegeto cost 25 cents and to contain 25 per cent. of inedible matters, bone, etc., 45 per cent. of water, and 30 per cent. of nutritive substance, upon which latter-the bone and water being assumed to be without nutritive value-the whole cost comes. The 30 per cent. or 3% pounds of nutritive substance thus costs 25 cents, or at the rate of 83 cents per pound. If, now, we leave out of account the minute quantities of carbohydrates and the mineral matters, the whole cost will fall upon the protein and fats. Assuming these to cost in the ratio of 5: 3 and the amounts in the meat to be, protein 141 per cent. and fats 15 per cent., an easy computation will show the protein to cost 107.7 cents, and the fats 64.6 cents per pound. Proof: 141-100 pound of protein at 107.7 cents = 15.3 cents; pounds of fats at 64·6 cents 9.7 cents; 15 3 cents + 9.7 cents = 25 cents, the cost of the pound of meat which contained the given amounts of protein and fats. Mackerel. The above ratios, protein: fats: carbohydrates = 5:3: 1, represent at best only general averages, and may in given cases be more or less incorrect. A method free from these objections consists in simply computing the amounts of nutrients that may be bought for the same price in different food-materials. At the same time the method above detailed is doubtless accurate enough for a general comparison of the relative cheapness and dearness of ordinary foods, and is used in calculating the costs of protein below.

Of the different nutrients, protein is physiologically the most important as it is pecuniarily the most expensive. In fish, furthermore, as in the leaner kinds of meat, it is the predominant nutritive ingredient. For these reasons the cost of protein in fish and other foods may be used as a means of comparing their relative cheapness or dearness, as is done in the following table. The figures represent the ordinary prices per pound and the corresponding costs of protein, in specimens of food-materials obtained in New York and Middletown (Conn.) markets. Though the number of specimens is too small for reliable averages, the figures, taken together, doubtless give a tolerably fair idea of the relative costliness of the nutrients in the different classes of foods.

Thus the nutrients of vegetable foods are, in general, much less costly than in animal foods. The animal foods have, however, the advantage of containing a larger proportion of protein and fats, and the protein, at least, in more digestible forms. And further, the socalled "nitrogenous extractives" of kreatin, carnin, etc., of meats, which contribute so much to their agreeable flavor, exert a nutritive effect which, though not yet explained, is nevertheless important. It is these which give to "extract of meat" its peculiar flavor and stimulating effect.

Among the animal foods, those which rank as delicacies are the costliest. By the above

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Shad.

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TABLE FOODS.

Ordinary prices per

Cost of protein per

pound.

pound.

Cents.

Cents.

Beef: Sirloin, medium fatness..

25

108

66

Same, at lower price

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Mutton: Leg..

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Cod..

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When plenty..
Alewife..

Canned salmon...
Salt mackerel..
Salt cod..

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Lower.

Oysters,+ 25 cents per quart.
85 cents per quart...
50 cents per quart, choice..

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Lobsters...

Wheat-flour, best....
Indian-corn (maize) meal
Oatmeal
Potatoes,* 50 cents per bushel..

Beans

100 cents per bushel..

+ Shell contents.

* Contain very little protein. calculations, the protein in the oysters costs from two to three dollars, and in salmon rises to nearly six dollars, per pound. In beef, mutton, and pork, it varies from 108 to 48 cents; in shad, bluefish, haddock, and halibut, the range is about the same; while in cod and mackerel, fresh and salted, it ranges from 67 to as low as 33 cents per pound. Salt cod and salt mackerel are nearly always, fresh cod and mackerel often, and even the choicer fish, as bluefish and shad, when abundant, cheaper sources of protein than any but the inferior kinds of meat.

In short, we pay for many of our foods according to their agreeableness to our palates, rather than their value for nourishing our bodies. At the same time it is interesting to note that the prices of the materials that make up the bulk of the food of the people seem to run more or less parallel with their actual nutritive values. Here, as elsewhere, the resultant of the general experience of mankind has led slowly and blindly, but none the less surely, to the same general result to which accurate research more understandingly and quickly guides us.

Fish as Food. As the investigation to which

a large number of the analyses of Tables I-IV belong was undertaken with an especial view to the study of fish as food for man, some more specific reference to fish may not be out of place here. The flesh of fish contains, in general, about the same proportions of protein, less fat, more water, and hence, on the whole, less nutritive material, than that of domestic animals used for food. Thus we have in the flesh of flounder only 16 per cent., and in that of cod 18 per cent. of nutrients, while ordinary lean beef has from 25 to 33 per cent., and the fatter meats considerably more. The fatter kinds of fish, however, as herring, mackerel, salmon, shad, and white-fish, approach nearer to medium beef. Dried and salted fish also contain good proportions of nutrients, the specimens of ordinary salt codfish having 28 per cent., salt mackerel 47 per cent. The edible portion of shell-fish is poor in nutrients, oysters varying from 9 to 19 per cent., and lobsters averaging 18 per cent.

Proportions of Nutrients in Fish and other FoodMaterials as commonly sold.-Fish as found in the markets generally contain more refuse, bone, skin, etc., than meats, as is illustrated in Tables II and IV. With the larger proportions of both refuse and water the proportions of nutrients, though variable, are usually much less than in meats. Thus, a sample of flounder contained 67 per cent. of refuse, 28 per cent. of water, and only 5 per cent. of nutritive substance, while the salmon averaged 23 per cent., the salt cod 22 per cent., and the salt mackerel 36 per cent. of nutrients. The nutrients in meats ranged from 30 per cent. in beef to 46 per cent. in mutton, and 87 per cent. in very fat pork (bacon). The canned fish compare very favorably with the meats. It is worth noting that the nutrients in fresh codfish, dressed, in oysters, edible portion, and in milk, were nearly the same in amount, about 12 per cent., though differing in kind and proportions.

Vegetable foods generally have less water and more nutrients than animal foods. Ordinary flour, meal, etc., contain from 85 to 90 per cent. or more of nutritive material. But the nutritive value is not proportional to the quantity of nutrients, because the vegetable foods consist mostly of carbohydrates, starch, sugar, cellulose, etc., of inferior nutritive effect, and because their protein is less digestible than that of animal foods. Potatoes contain a large amount of water and extremely little protein or fats.

Uses of Fish as Food.-The chief uses of fish as food are (1) as an economical source of nutriment, and (2) to supply the demand for variety in diet, which increases with the advance of civilization and culture.

As nutriment, the place of fish is that of a supplement to vegetable foods, the most of which, as wheat, rye, maize, rice, potatoes, etc., are deficient in protein, the chief nutrient of fish.

The so-called nitrogenous extractives, con

tained in small quantities in fish, as in other animal foods, are doubtless useful in nutrition. The theory that fish is especially valuable for brain-food, on account of an assumed richness in phosphorus, is not sustained by the facts of either chemistry or physiology.

It is an interesting fact that the poorer classes of people and communities almost universally select those foods which chemical analysis shows to supply the actual nutrients at the lowest cost. But, unfortunately, the proportions of the nutrients in their dietaries are often very defective. Thus, in portions of India and China, rice; in Northern Italy, maizemeal; in certain districts of Germany and in some regions and seasons in Ireland, potatoes; and among the poor whites of the Southern United States, maize-meal and bacon, make a large part, and in some cases almost the sole, food of the people. These foods supply the nutrients in the cheapest forms, but are all deficient in protein. The people who live upon them are ill-nourished and suffer physically, intellectually, and morally thereby.

On the other hand, the Scotchman finds a most economical supply of protein in oatmeal, haddock, and herring; and the rural inhabitants of New England supplement the fat of their pork with protein of beans, and the carbohydrates of potatoes, maize, and wheat-flour with the protein of codfish and mackerel, and, while subsisting largely upon such frugal but rational diets, are well nourished, physically strong, and noted for their intellectual and moral force.

As population becomes denser, the capacity of the soil to supply food for man gradually nears its limit. Fish gather materials that would otherwise be inaccessible and lost, and store them in the very forms that are most deficient in the produce of the soil. Thus, by proper culture and use of fish, the rivers and the sea are made to fulfill their office with the land in supplying nutriment for man.

FOOT-AND-MOUTH DISEASE. The foot-andmouth disease is the most contagious of all the maladies which affect domestic animals. Nearly all four-footed beasts are liable to it, but the cloven-footed are especially predisposed to infection. Sheep, goats, swine, and cattle contract it with equal readiness and certainty. All the individuals of a herd or flock in which it makes its appearance are affected almost simultaneously. The period of incubation is about 36 hours, though in cold weather the symptoms seem to be delayed, and sometimes do not manifest themselves until six days after exposure to the infection. The symptoms are the swelling of the digits, blisters or ulcers between the hoofs, lameness, inflammation and tenderness of the udder and teats, with sores and blisters on those parts, frothing and slobbering at the mouth, a smacking noise made with the tongue and palate, and large, rounded blisters or angry sores on the mucous membrane of the mouth.

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