────────────┬──────────┬──────┬────────── │ Albumin. │ Fat. │Calories. ────────────┼──────────┼──────┼────────── Herring │ 10.1 │ 7.1 │ 107 (Rubner) │ │ │ Haddock │ 17.1 │ 0.3 │ 73 (Rubner) │ │ │ Salmon │ 16.10 │ 5.50 │ 110 (Pavy) │ │ │ Eel (Rubner)│ 17.8 │ 28.4 │ 317 White fish │ 18.10 │ 2.90 │ 102 (Pavy) │ │ │ ────────────┴──────────┴──────┴────────── Fish contain as a rule very little extractive substances compared with meat, and are therefore less tasteful; but still the fatter fish have an agreeable flavor, and are pleasant to the taste. As a general rule, they are more digestible than meat, and also have less of other disadvantages than meat food, on which we will dwell more fully in another chapter. On the other hand, it is more important than with meat that fish should be absolutely fresh, which would be best attained by keeping them alive in water until just before being required for the table. Boiled fish is the most digestible, fried less so, and pickled or smoked the least. The most perfect animal food is milk, as it contains all the three principal elements of nourishment, and in normal digestive organs is easily resorbed. As in the case of meat diet, we will deal more fully with this most important and wholesome food in a special chapter. We will content ourselves with mentioning here that milk not only contains the three principal elements of food, but also most of the equally important organic and inorganic minerals, without which life would be impossible. It contains very important organic phosphorized combinations in the shape of lecithin and nuclein; and of the inorganic salts, lime exists in milk in a much greater degree than in any other food. Besides the albumin, carbohydrates, and fat which it contains, milk comes under the category of foods which are richest in mineral salts, especially lime, of which cows’ milk contains 1510 milligrammes in every 100 grammes of desiccated substance, according to Bunge. In iron only is cows’ milk very poor, and therefore when milk forms the main part of our daily nourishment it will be necessary to partake of iron at the same time, which we can best do by eating sausage and puddings made from pigs’ blood (see Chapter XXXVIII). According to Professor Rubner milk and the various products of milk contain the three main elements of food, in each 100 parts, as follows:—