BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 225 



Vol. VI, IVo. 15. IVasliingtoii, B. C. &ci. 37, 1 886. 



re— BEPOBT OIV THE ARTIFICIAL. FECUNDATIOIV ANI> GEIVERA. 



TIOIV OF OYSTERS.* 



By G. BOi;€IIO]V-BRAIVDEL.ir, 



Sea'ctary of the College of I'Vance. 



Our experiment^ iu the artilieial fecuiulatiou of Portuguese oysters 

 were made during tbe course of 1883 at different points on the coast. 

 Before giving an account of the results obtained, and of some new ob- 

 servations which we were fortunate enough to make daring the year, it 

 is necessary to point out a fact which, iu our opinion, is of the great- 

 est importance as regards the subject in question, and which shows that 

 we were right in stating in our hist year's report to the minister of ma- 

 rine that the artilieial fecundation of oysters opened out new prospects 

 to the industry of oyster culture. 



The following is the fact referred to, which was first reported by an 

 English journal. In the beginning of September, 1883, the Pall Mall 

 Gazette contained the following: 



"Mr. J. A. Kyder, professor of embryology, attached to the U. S. Fish 

 Commission, is said to have solved at last the problem of the reproduction 

 of oysters from artiticially fecundated eggs. The correspondent of the 

 Pall Mall Gazette reports that on September 4 he saw, at the Govern- 

 ment fish-cultural station, at Stockton, Md., several thousands of young 

 oysters, a quarter of an inch in diameter, which had been i)roduced from 

 artificially fecundated eggs, and had been hatched at the station forty- 

 six days previous." 



To tbe honor of the administration of marine, under whose auspices 

 we have made these experiments, let it be stated that the first applica- 

 tion of the methods of artificial fecundation was nmde in France, and 

 through our efforts, as appears from a notice presented by us last year to 

 the Academy of Sciences, which was entered in the acts of the Academy 

 under date of July 31, and from a report on our operations to the min- 

 ister of marine publit;hed in the Journal Officiel and in the Revue Mari- 

 time. 



After having made this statement we are happy to acknowledge the 

 success of the Americans. Their success is full of encouragement, from 

 which Ave hope our French oyster cultivators will profit. We also learn 

 therefrom that, thanks to the new methods, it is possible to acclimatize 

 in France some of the fine varieties of oysters found on the coasts of 



* '^^ Eapportsur la fecondation artificielle et la generation dcs huitrcs," Paris. 1884. Trans- 

 lated from the French hy Herman Jacobson. 



Bull. U. S. F. C, 80 15 



