The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1902-11-12

minutes without the slightest harm to
them, and there is no operation that re-
quires longer space of time; but what
makes it difficult is the Discrimination of
the flesh to heal after it has been cut.
A wound, to heal, requires to be dry;
nothing is more deleterious to it than
any sort of moisture; and hence the
troubles Of a fish wounded, bathed and
soaked in water all the time. Inevita-
bly,, therefore, fish operations are sim
pie and slight.
One of them is the trimming of tails
enlarged to unwieldiness by growths Of
fungus. In this work sharp shears,
| with blades oddly curved-fish shears
are employed. The fish is lifted from
the water, and held head downward
while its tail is being trimmed. A dex-
ferrous operator gets through the work
in two or three minutes; there is no
flow of blood, and no gaping wound
that will not heal. Hence tail trim
ming is in nine cases out of ten sue
| cessful. 1t must be resorted to often
| with Japanese goldfish, for these costly
and graceful creatures, with their re-
| semblance to strange, golden flowers,
have tails bigger than their bodies, and
when their tails, as frequently happens,
become affected with fungus, they are
unable to swim well. and sometimes,
indeed, they drown. A fish browns"
techincallyS when, floating with its
head out of the water, it dies from as
phyxiation. a.
The knife is used on fish to remove
tumors, or lacerated scales, or splin-
tered bones, which, unexcised, would
couse the fish's death. John Pope sue
cessmully cut out a tumor in October
from the abdomen of Japanese "tele-
scope" a rare sort Of golden carp, with
eyes that protrude fully half an inch
from their sockets. The tumor was so
huge that the telescope could scarce
ly swim at all. Unless it kept up the
most frantic exertions Of its fins and
tail, it turned over on its back and
f1oated so, quite overbalanced by its
swollen abdomen. Pope lifted it from
the water and laid it on a wet table.
He made V-shaped incision above the
tumor. The tunior itself, which was
the size of a marble, he tore out with
his fingers, not cutting it out, because
the former method was bloodless,
whereas the latter would have caused
a severe hemorrhage, and then he
sewed up the incision quickly with fine
silk thread. Finally he bandaged the
wound with a tight rubbed bandage
and returned the fish to the water. It
was well enough to eat the next day,
and in a week the removal Of the ban
dage showed that the wound had quite
healed. This very successful operation
kept the fish patient out of the water
just four minutes.
Lacerations of the scales are only
treated when they are so severe that
the fish without treatment would sure
ly die. This operation is successful in
about seventy per cent. of the cases.
The remaining thirty per cent. die be-
cause their wounds do not heal.
Stripping is an operation resorted to
when, in the breeding season, the fish,
through some malady or other, does not
deposit naturally its eggs or its milt.
The patient, in this operation, Is held
with the left hand, while with the
right firm pressure is exerted along
it's sides from the breast down to the
tail. Stripping must often be done
with captive fish. 1t is the least dam
gerous of all the operations In Ash sur
gerry. ...
Admirable results are obtained by
dosing fish with medicines. Castor oil,
for swelling Of the swimming bladder,
is a remedy that seldom fails. A fish,
dose of castor oil is one drop, diluted
slightly. The liquid may be admins
tered either with a spoon or with a
quill toothpick. The process in each
case is similar. The fish is held in an
erect position, it's head well up, and the
drippings from the toothpick or the
contents of the spoon are directed into
it's mouth. Sometimes they flow forth
again through the bills, and in this
event the dose must be repeated. Its
administration with the toothpick is
rather better than with the spoon, be-
cause the toothpick can be pushed we'll
down the throat, and thus the medicine
| is in no danger of escaping through the
gills.
A swollen swimming bladder is a fire.
quent and dangerous ailment of cap
tive fish. Under it they become eX-
| tremely corpulent and unwieldy; at
length they turn and float on their
| backs; finally they die. But in nine
| cases out of ten one dose of castor oil
cures this disease in day. Fish often
| lose appetite-become thin and weak,
| and apathetic. Their trouble then is
stomachic, and nux vomica, with them
as with human beings, affords quick re-
lief. A drop of dilute nux vomica will
bring back fish's appetite, restore its
weight and make it active and cheer
| full.
The fish doctor is the outcome Of the
popularity of rare fish--of Japanese
and Indian and African varieties, some
| of which cost from twenty-five to one
hundred dollars each. AS such fish
| are imported at great cost, and as, in
many instances, they have attained
their full growth only after fifteen or
twenty years of careful tending, it is
only natural that great efforts should
be taken to save their lives when they
| fall ill. In the making Of these efforts
countless experiments have been tried
from time to time. Out of those exper-
iments have been born the rules and
| principles of fish surgery and fish med
icine that have been cited here.
Those who own aquariums no longer
| need to fear when their fish fall i'll that
they will inevitably die, for there are
nhVsicians now in all the large cities