On the way to thaw out frozen fish for cooking, and on fishing in winter

IF you need to boil frozen fish, which are as hard as logs or stones, you first have to place them in ice-cold water to loosen and soften the scales. On no account put them in hot water. This is not only pointless for thawing out the scales, but imparts a noxious gluey quality to the fish and makes it tasteless. ¹ So people cure their frost-bitten feet, nails, or fingers by immersing them in very cold water, which gradually restores the natural warmth, whereas hot water totally banishes it and never allows it to return to the numbed extremities. ² If you need to enquire into the reasons why this should be so, you ought to look as far as is necessary among the problems of Aristotle, Plutarch, and other investigators of natural phenomena. ³