TAKING THE EGGS. 89 



taken and impregnated safely in a dry vessel, but also 

 that the wJiole of ihc?n could be impregnated in this 

 way. Such marvellous success had never been reached 

 before by any method, sixty-five or seventy per cent 

 having been a large average of impregnation, in opera- 

 tions in this country, and Seth Green, who approxi- 



impregnated only as long as this absorption is not finished ; that 

 is to say, during a half-hour at the utmost. Once saturated with 

 water, the eggs do not absorb any spermatozoa ; but if received 

 into dry vessels on issuing from the fish, the eggs remain, on 

 the contrary, for a sufficient time, in a neutral state, and do not 

 lose the power, when once put into water, of receiving the 

 spermatozoa. Second, the spermatozoa of the milt, in falling 

 into the water, commence immediately, with much vigor and 

 rapidity, to make movements, which only last, however, for a 

 minute and a half, or two at the most ; when this time is elapsed, 

 only in some few spermatozoa can there be seen particular move- 

 ments and agonized convulsions. When, at the issuing from the 

 male fish, the milt is received in a dry vessel, it does not change 

 for many hours, and during this interval the spermatozoa do not 

 lose the power of beginning to move when they find themselves 

 in contact with water. Closed in a dry tube and well corked, 

 the milt preserved its impregnating virtue during six days. 



" From these observations, as also from the fact that the eggs, 

 as well as the milt, are obtained slowly, their entire mass not 

 being able to issue at once, M. Vrasski arrived at the conclusion 

 that when they were received in water the greater part of the 

 eggs attempted to saturate themselves with water, and the 

 spermatozoa almost ceased to move before it was possible for 

 the fish breeder to mix the eggs with the diluted water. M. 

 Vrasski adopted then the system of dry vessels, and turned the 

 milt on the eggs immediately he put them in water. The success 

 was complete ; all the eggs were impregnated, without one 

 exception." — " The Establishment at Nikolsk fr>r the Rearing of 

 Choice Fish." Review in New York Citizen and Round Table, 

 May 27, 1871. 



