Savants, in other respects orthodox, have maintained that ocean
was the common cradle of all that exists, and that man himself
sprang from the sea and owes his actual habits to the influence of
the air, and the mode of life he has been obliged to adopt.
Be this as it may, it is at least certain, that the waters contain
an immense quantity of beings of all forms and sizes, which
possess vitality in very different proportions, and according to
mode very different from that of warm blooded animals.
It is not less true that water has ever presented an immense
variety of aliments, and that in the present state of science it
introduces to our table the most agreeable variety.
Fish, less nutritious than flesh and more succulent than
vegetables, is a mezzo termine, which suits all temperments and
which persons recovering from illness may safely eat.
The Greeks and Romans, though they had not made as much progress
as we have in the art of seasoning fish, esteemed it very highly,
and were so delicate that they could even tell where it had been
taken.
Large fish ponds were maintained, and the cruelty of Vellius
Pollis who fed his lampreys on the bodies of slaves he caused to
be slain is well known. This cruelty Domitian disapproved of but
should have punished.
There has been much discussion as to which is the best fish.
The question will never be decided, for as the Spanish proverb
says, sobre los gustos no hai disputa. Every one is effected in
his own way. These fugitive sensations can be expressed by no
known character, and there is no scale to measure if a CAT-FISH
(!), a sole, or a turbot are better than a salmon, trout, pike, or
even tench of six or seven pounds.
It is well understood that fish is less nourishing than meat,
because it contains no osmazome, because it is lighter in weight,
and contains less weight in the same volume. Shell-fish, and
especially oysters, furnish little nutrition, so that one can eat
a great many without injury.
It will be remembered that not long ago any well arranged
entertainment began with oysters, and that many guests never
paused without swallowing a gross (144). I was anxious to know the
weight of this advance guard, and I ascertained that a dozen
oysters, fluid included, weighed four ounces averdupois. Now look
on it as certain that the same persons who did not make a whit the
worse dinner, on account of the oysters would have been completely
satisfied if they had eaten the same weight of flesh or of
chicken.
ANECDOTE.
In 1798 I was at Versailles as a commissary of the Directory, and
frequently met M. Laperte, greffier of the count of the
department. He was very fond of oysters, and used to complain that
he had never had enough.
I resolved to procure him this satisfaction, and invited him to
dine with me on the next day.
He came. I kept company with him to the tenth dozen, after which I
let him go on alone. He managed to eat thirty-two dozen within an
hour for the person who opened them was not very skilful.
In the interim, I was idle, and as that is always a painful state
at the table, I stopped him at the moment when he was in full
swing. "Mon cher," said I, "you will not to-day eat as many
oysters as you meant--let us dine." We did so, and he acted as if
he had fasted for a week.
Muria-Garum
The ancients extracted from fish two highly flavored seasonings,
muria and garum.
The first was the juice of the thuny, or to speak more precisely,
the liquid substance which salt causes to flow from the fish.
Garum was dearer, and we know much less of it. It is thought that
it was extracted by pressure from the entrailles of the scombra or
mackerel; but this supposition does not account for its high
price. There is reason to believe it was a foreign sauce, and was
nothing else but the Indian soy, which we know to be only fish
fermented with mushrooms.
Certainly, people from their locality are forced to live almost
entirely upon fish. They also feed their working animals with it,
and the latter from custom gradually grow to like this strange
food. They also manure the soil with it, yet always receive the
same quantity from the sea which surrounds them.
It has been observed that such nations are not so courageous as
those that eat flesh. They are pale, a thing not surprising, for
the elements of fish must rather repair the lymph than the blood.
Among ichthyophages, remarkable instances of longevity are
observed, either because light food preserves them from plethora,
or that the juices it contains being formed by nature only to
constitute cartilages which never bears long duration, their use
retards the solidification of the parts of the body which, after
all, is the cause of death.
Be this as it may, fish in the hands of a skilful cook is an
inexhaustible source of enjoyment. It is served up whole, in
pieces, truncated with water, oil, vinegar, warm, cold; and is
always well received. It is, however never better than when
dressed en matilotte.
This ragout, though made a necessary dish to the boatmen on our
rivers, and made in perfection only by the keepers of cobarets on
their banks, is incomparably good. Lovers of fish never see it
without expressing their gratification, either on account of its
freshness of taste, or because they can without difficulty eat an
indefinite quantity, without any fear of satiety or indigestion.
Analytical gastronomy has sought to ascertain what are the effects
of a fish diet on the animal system. Unanimous observation leads
us to think that it has great influence on the genesiac sense, and
awakens the instinct of reproduction in the two sexes. This effect
being once known, two causes were at once assigned for it:
1st. The different manner of preparing fish, all the seasoning for
it being irritating, such as carar, hering, thon marine, etc.
2d. The various juices the fish imbibes, which are highly
inflammable and oxigenise in digestion.
Profound analysis has discovered a yet more powerful cause: the
presence of phosphorous in all the portions, and which
decomposition soon developes.
These physical truths were doubtless unknown to the ecclesiastical
legislators, who imposed the lenten diet on different communities
of monks, such as Chartreux, Recollets, Trappists, and the
Carmelites reformed by Saint Theresa; no one thinks that they
wished to throw a new difficulty into the way of the observance of
the already most anti-social vow of chastity.
In this state of affairs, beyond doubt, glorious victories were
won, and rebellious senses were subjected; there were, however,
many lapses and defeats. They must have been well averred, for the
result was the religious orders had ultimately a reputation like
that of Hercules and the daughters of Danaus, or Marshal Saxe with
M'lle Lecouvreur.
They might also have been delighted by an anecdote, so old as to
date from the crusades.
Sultan Saladin being anxious to measure the continence of devises,
took two into his palace, and for a long time fed them on the most
succulent food.
Soon all traces of fasting began to disappear, and they reached a
very comfortable embonpoint. At that time they were given as
companions two odalisques of great beauty, all of whose well-
directed attacks failed, and they came from the ordeal pure as the
diamond of Visapor.
The Sultan kept them in his palace, and to celebrate their triumph
fed them for several weeks on fish alone.
After a few days they were again submitted to the ordeal of the
odalisques, and.........
In the present state of our knowledge, it is probable that if the
course of events were to establish any monastic order, the
superiors would adopt some regimen better calculated to maintain
its objects.
PHILOSOPHICAL REFLECTION.
Fish, considered in general, is an inexhaustible source of
reflection to the philosopher.
The varied forms of these strange animals, the senses they are
deprived of, and the limited nature of those they have, their
various modes of existence, the influence exerted over them by the
medium in which they live, move, and breathe, extend the range of
our ideas and the indefinite modifications which result from their
nature, motions and lives.
For my part, I entertain to them a sentiment very like respect,
resulting from my belief that they belong to antediluvian races.
The great convulsion which doomed our ancestors, in the eighteenth
century of the world, to fish was a season of joy, triumph and
festivity.