Fish as Brain Food

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Mar 23, 1888

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 14, No. 12.

Fish as Brain Food

"Fish," says Dr. W. W. Godding, of Washington, "has for years enjoyed the reputation of being rich in phosphorus and hence adapted to the growth of brains. How such a notion originated I do not know; perhaps because stale fish shines with a phosphorescent light in the dark. As a food, fish is richer in water than phosphorus, and to feed it to children, expecting thereby to grow them into philosophers, would be on a par with the scholar who boiled his dictionary in milk for supper, hoping thus to acquire the language. As a matter of fact, physiological experiments, often repeated on a large scale, rather negative the popular idea of the value of fish as a 'brain food.'"—Selected.