BULLETIN 



OF THE 



UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



1886. 



1.— TEOETABLiE PARASITEIS OF CODFISU. 



By W. G. FARLOW. 



In the Eeport of the U. S. Fish Commissioner for 1878 (Washington, 

 1880), I gave an account of the alga, or, more properly, the schizomycete, 

 which causes the reddening of codfish, that has proved a source of 

 serious trouble to the fishermen of Gloucester. In the same article 

 there was described a second parasite, Sarcina morrhuce Farlow, found 

 growing with the Clathrocystis roseo-persicina Cohn, the species which 

 causes the redness. Since the publication of the above-named article, 

 the peculiar redness, which up to that time was known only on our 

 coast, has been observed in other countries. As the accounts of its 

 occurrence have been published in journals which are not often read in 

 this country, the following statement of what is known about the 

 trouble in foreign countries may be of interest. 



In the Journal de Medecine de VAlgerie^ 1884, p. 6, Dr. E. Bertherand 

 gave an account of poisoning which occurred among the troops en- 

 camped at Sidi-Bel-Abbes and in the neighborhood of Algiers. The 

 trouble, which lasted but a short time, is said to have been caused by 

 eating dried codfish which had become "^chauffee," to use the local 

 expression. The fish eaten had a vermilion tint along the spine, and 

 the discoloration was not merely superficial, but extended also to the 

 flesh. The color was attributed by M. Megnin to the growth of a fun- 

 gus, which he named Coniothecium bertherandi. A descrii)tion and 

 figure of the fungus were given in the Bevue Mycologique, Yol. VI, p. 

 114, pi. 4G, f. 3. 



Thinking that there might be some connection between the fungus 

 found in Algiers and the Sarcina of our coast, I communicated to the 

 editor of the Bevue a notice* of the Clathrocystis and Sarcina known 



'L. c, Vol. VI, p. 197. Maladies des morues sfeches, par W. G. Farlow, October, 1884. 



Bull. U. S. F. C, 86 1 February 8, 1 886. 



