478 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



operated iu 1841 iipou the water-courses belonging to Mr. Drummoud, 

 near Uxbridge, then upon the estate of the Duke of Devonshire at Chats- 

 worth, upon that of Mr. Gurnie at Carsalton, and that of Mr. Hibberts 

 at Chalfort. Mr. Boccius must have raised alreads' about two millions 

 of little trout. 



The discovery of Jacobi had passed successfully, as we have seen* the 

 trial and application in England as in Germany. Up to 1848, neverthe- 

 less, France had remained very much behind in experiments of this sort. 

 Although she, perhaps more than any other country, had need of effectual 

 means for remedying the impoverishment of the waters, the French 

 economists had given scarcely' any attention to this question. A single 

 one, the Baron of Riviere, presented, in 1840, to the Central Society of 

 Agriculture, some very learned and sensible reflections upon ichthyology 

 regarded in its relations to the wants of man aud the profits of agricul- 

 ture.* He insisted especially on the advantages which would result 

 from taking iu the spring the bouirons or little eels which abound at the 

 mouths of rivers, and dispersing them in the lakes, ponds, pools, and 

 even muddy ditches, where they live very well. He satisfied himself 

 that they might be transported alive in casks full of water, without 

 appearing to suffer much from it ; but wherever it should be possible to 

 use rivers or canals, he thought it better to make use of boats pierced 

 with holes iu communication with tlie water, such as are frequently used 

 for keeping fish. In this memoir of M. de Riviere, the word pisciculture is 

 used for the first time; he employs it with hesitation to indicate this 

 new branch of rural economy, which, says he, is still to be created. 



II. 



The year 1848 saw a new era commence iu I^rance for the economy of 

 the waters. We believe it is just to say that if the application of arti- 

 ficial fecundation to the repopulating of rivers is owing to a German 

 naturalist, it is in our country that pisciculture has grown, has been per- 



Iii his work published in 1848, (Fish in Rivers aud Streams, a treatise on the produc- 

 tion and management of fish iu fresh water by aitificial spawning, breeding, and rear- 

 ing, siiowing also the cause of the depletion of all rivers aud streams, by Gottleib 

 Boccius, London, John Van Voorst, Paternoster Row, 1848,) after describing appa- 

 ratus for the incubation aud care of eggs he says, on page 32 : " Sis years have I suc- 

 cessfully carried out this arrangement with trout in a fishery not far from London, 

 which is now the richest streftra in the south of Euglaud. The principle of artificial 

 spawning I have been acquainted with as far back as 1S15;" after which he describes 

 the processes of artificial fecundation of eggs. 



The statement made by Boccius to Milne-Edwards, repeated by M. Coste and subse- 

 quent writers, that he applied the art of artificial fecundation in England in 1841, 

 seems to indicate an inconsistency with referencs to the dates. The evidence from his 

 first work has, of course, no bearing upon the matter other than to indicate that he 

 had not practiced the art at the time of preparing the book. But his claim in his 

 second book, that for six years he had practiced the art, would not carry him back to 

 the autumn of 1841, unless it were the fact that the" manuscript had been prepared 

 more than a year before the date of publication. — J. W. M. 



* Memoirs of the Central Society of Agriculture, vol. xlviii, p. 171, 1840. 



