Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1852-10-02


lands with herbyorous animals intended TO
for subsistence River fisheries have long since been
subjected to legal regulations intended to favor the re-
production OF sh and protect the development of the fry
The royal ordinance OF 1869 forms the basis Of egs
aton upon this subject and contains several regulations
Of incontesabe utility. The owners of ponds also give
ordinarily some attention TO the stocking with FISH of these
natural nurseries But in the habit of abandoning
to chance all that relates to the reproduction of fish in
rivers and, bitterly complaining the while Of their
rapid dminuton, have used but little diligence in
seeking remedy for the evil. Public attention has at
last been awoke upon this question by paper read before
the Academy of Sciences two wears ago by one Of onr
most distinguished BIOLOGISTS NJ QUATREfAGEs exPro-
fessor in the Faculty of Sciences at Toulouse This ee
CANT writer ana sapa gave to agrcultursts useful
instruction In the art Of rearing fish, and strongly urged
them to put in practice process of MULTIPLICATION long
since well known to Psychologists and often EMPLOYED by
them in their Cabinet experiments to wit the artificial
formulation Of the eggs of fishes T9
| We know, from the works of SpALLASzAsI and also
from the experimental researches with which Yourself
lie Mnstre* in connection with your former assistant
PROVOST of Geneva enriched science twenty-five wears
that all 1ecundaon is the result of the action
upon the egg in state of maturity by the living
spermatozoides with which the seminal liquor is charged
that this action takes place by the direct contact of these
reproductive elements and that the physiological
OF the elements may be unmpaired for
longer or shorter time after being withdrawn from the
influence OF the living organisms within which they were
elaborated With large number Of the inferior animals
role OF the parents in the work Of consists
solely in the formation and emission Of these generic
elements The egg is not formulated till after it is laid
and its meeting with the spermatozoide with
whichs necessary for the production of vitality only
happens the of causes indepe
dent Of the action of the parents as for instance the
which exist in the water in which the
been deposited The experimenter may then at his
pleasure determine this physiological phenomena by the
mechanical mixture of the eggs and seminal liquor of
| these animals. 81.
similar result is obtained by artifcially formulating
the eggs produced by animals whose multiplication not
in the above cases. left by nature to chance but eff
fected by the union of two provocative individuals The
of biologists also show that in the general
harmony Of nature the fecundity of animals regulated
only in view of the of destruction to which the
young are exposed before they themselves become able
in the reproduction of their species but also in
reference to the chances Of noncundaton to which the
eggs subjected and that accordingly in those cases
in which the contact of the eggs with the seminal liquor
does not take place till after the eggs are abandoned by
the female, and depends more or less completely on
chance the number of eggs is always much more con-
siderable than when their vitality is assured previous to
their being laid Fishes, for the most part belong to
that category of animals whose eggs are not formulated
by the male till after the lapse Of less time after
their emission, and without the of any init
mne relation of the male with the female So in order
to determine the development of the embryo in the nte
ror of the eggs yet sterile the Psychologist has only
to initiate in the experiments Of his laboratory what
takes place normally in nature; that is to say he has
only TO place the eggs in contact with charged with
the milt, sperm, and their formulation is Immediately
\
the eggs to be formulated it suces to press slightly
the bellies of the males and females whose products
ripe and whose lives consequently not endangered
by the operation Or supply may be obtained by open
ing the bodies of individuals that but recently dead
for these eggs and this sperm continue to possess their
vitality for considerable space Of time after life has ceas
ed in the beings which produced them In this manner
is quite possible to produce from dead bodies
numerous and vigorous generation This fact was fuy
established blythe Count of Golsten about the middle of
the last century, long before Spaanzan had published
his hns researches upon tie subject of generation In
1853 this udcous Observer addressed to one of the an
cestors of the celebrated Fourcroy highly interesting
memoir the artificial formulation Of trouts and the
which might be made of this process for the stocking
of rivers. An extract of the work Of Golsein in
serted in book entitled HeiCeda EUenag Soees Hell
monceau gave translation of it in the third volume of
his General Treatise Fishes which was prepared by or
| der of the Academy of Sciences
About the time German naturalist (Jacobi) pub.
shed in 1853, at Hamburg, equally interesting let
ter the art of breeding samons and routs and upon
the reproduction of these fishes by of artificial fe
cundation At later date analogous experiments were
made in Scotland by Dr. Knox, and by Mr. Shaw and by
Mr. Andrew Young.
In 1885 VI Rusconi, so well known to naturalists by
his work the embryoogy of saamanders published in
the seventy volume of the B5oteca Halidna some
new observations upon the development of fishes and
gave equally instructive details respecting the artificial
formulation Of the eggs ench and white bait or bleak
translation Of this memoir was inserted, my in
4
will add Also that it by resortng this process
Of multiplication that MN. Agassz and vogt procured
all the embryos necessary for the prosecution of their
studies the development of the paee, species Of sal
found in the Swiss lakes, of which these two
| ralists published the anatomical history in 1912.
The physiological fact upon which nj. Quarefages
lied to impel agrcutursts to the production, in
sort, Of fishes they produce wheat meat offered
therefore nothing that was new to biologists; and NJ
Quareages the first to recall the memory Of sauan
the titles Of Gosten to be considered the inventor Of
tcial formulation But, according to system of edu
cation truths which have become almost commonplace
with naturalsts are ordinarily quite unknown to the
greater number Of the best-informed ii was
therefore useful to earnestly call the attention of the
public to this practical application Of science to rural in
dustry For only had rural industry failed up to that
time to reap any benefit from the results sgnazed by
that author but have fear that in asserting
that there not in France ten agrculturss who had
the slightest idea of the service which Psychologists had
been offering them for many years.
should not therefore, be surprised to find that in one
of the retired valleys Of the chain Of the Vosges
two fishermen terate but endowed by nature with re-
markedly observing minds, and possessing power of
perseverance, which is still with us should have
been utterly unaware Of all these things and that wish
ing to prevent the ruin with which their calling was
threatened they should have employed several years of
their lives in painfully repeating the experiments of the
celebrated psychologists whose have lust cited
and in discovering by themselves what naturasts knew
than century ago. But if these poor peasants Of
la Bresse anticipated in their researches by men of
science and il they have not enriched natural history
with any result they not the less worthy of in
teres and they have right gratitude for thew
appear have been the FIRST to make amongst us prac
teal application Of the discovery Of artificial formulation
TO the breeding OF fishes and they have the merit OF
ing thus created new industry in France
The first experiments Of MN Gehin and Remy the two
fishermen Of whom mention has Just been made date
from the year 1877 Having aseertained bya long series