G. GENERAL NATURAL HISTORY AND ZOOLOGY. 267 



KILLING FISH WITH TORPEDOES IX FLORIDA. 



The use of torpedoes for killing fish for manure has lately 

 been introduced on the coast of Florida. The business is 

 carried on about six miles below New Smyrna, at Mosquito 

 Lagoon, and the method adopted is said to consist in ex- 

 ploding the torpedoes in the water, under the schools, as they 

 pass by. In addition to the many that are killed outright, 

 and float on the surface, large numbers are wounded, and go 

 off elsewhere to die, without being caught. This practice, 

 we are assured, has already resulted in a very marked dim- 

 inution of the schools of fish in that vicinity, and has been 

 greatly resented by the people of the state, who are endeav- 

 oring to drive the operator from its waters. Letter. 



FUNGUS GROWTHS ON FISH AND THEIR EGGS. 



In a recent article, Professor Willkomm, of Tharaudt, in 

 Germany, discusses the subject of the cryptogamic growth 

 which so frequently interferes with the business of artificial 

 fish-breeding, by attaching itself to the eggs or to the young 

 fish, and destroying them; and after considering in detail 

 the various suggestions made by writers in regard to this 

 parasite, endeavors to show that it is simply the alternate 

 condition of the ordinary mould (3fucor mucedo) which de- 

 velops itself, under favorable circumstances, in the air. This 

 was proved by transplanting filaments of mould to fish or 

 eggs, and finding them develop into the species in question ; 

 and vice versa.hy taking the filaments from the fish, and plant- 

 ing them in the air, they produce genuine mould. The gen- 

 eric name adopted by our author for the plant in question is 

 Saproleg?iia, as established by Nees von Esenbech, who called 

 it S. molluscornm. 



Dr. Willkomm is even of opinion that the fungus which 

 forms on dead flies and other insects in such large quanti- 

 ties, and known as Achlya prolifera, as well as the Empusa 

 muscw, which develops on living insects in the air, is merely 

 a different form of the same polymorphous growth, and which, 

 when taking root on perfectly sound, healthy animals, may 

 impart disease to them, and even produce death. It is also 

 suggested that the Tarichium of Dr. Cohn, which produces a 

 new caterpillar disease, is a still different phase of the same 



