“Such was the success of the first cannery on the Fraser that fifty have since been erected between New Westminster and the Gulf of Georgia. The season’s pack on the Fraser has been as high as one million cases, each case containing 48 lb. of salmon. One million cases would contain from twelve to fourteen million fish.” Mr. Barker then referred to the illusory fears some persons in the Old Country have entertained on the subject of tinned salmon: “There have,” he said, “been instances of ptomaine poisoning in connection with various animal foods, including canned fish. But it has been proved on incontrovertible evidence, and to the satisfaction of the highest scientific and medical authorities, that canned fish is absolutely innocuous, and very wholesome, when eaten fresh. The process of canning it sterilises it. Ptomaine poisoning is caused by the prolonged action of the air on food that has been hermetically sealed, such as shell-fish, sausages, and canned or bottled foods. We have paid a lot of money to find that out. I will give you a typical instance—a case of poisoning in New Haven, Connecticut. We engaged one of the leading doctors of the New York Health Department to go there and investigate the circumstances. He found that when the tin was opened—in the middle of July, with the thermometer at nearly 100°—only a small part of the fish was eaten. The rest was left in the tin, and was not consumed until three days later, when this stale food caused one child to die and made two or three others sick. Cases investigated in Chicago and other parts of the United States have had a similar history. Canned salmon should be used only on the day the tin is opened.” I asked Mr. Barker to describe the processes to which the fish is subjected in the cannery.