358 ALBERT C. HUNTER 



Cultures from the mouth and gills of the fish were taken by 

 simply inserting a sterile loop into these parts and then smearing 

 the adhering mucus over the agar slant. After the material 

 from the back and belly of the fish had been collected and the 

 cultures from the mouth taken, the body cavity was carefully 

 opened and the body wall cut in such a way that it might be 

 pinned back, exposing the viscera. Organs from which cultures 

 were to be taken were seared with a hot instrument and then 

 cut slightly with sterile scissors. The sterile loop was inserted 

 through the small opening and some of the blood and mucus 

 transferred to the agar slant. 



Since all the salmon examined were caught during their spawn- 

 ing migration, there was never any food found in the stomach. 

 On rare occasions a small amount of partly digested food would 

 be found in the intestine but for the most part the whole digestive 

 tract appeared to contain nothing but mucus. 



In handling one lot of humpback salmon the fish were washed 

 thoroughly with running water, cleaning the bodies entirely of 

 blood and slime. It was noticed that these salmon did not 

 decompose as rapidly as had previous lots and in the subsequent 

 experiments particular attention was given to the effect of wash- 

 ing fish as soon as they were brought ashore. 



Examination of the mouths and gills of 41 salmon of various 

 species has shown that microorganisms are always present even 

 when the fish are examined immediately on being taken from 

 the trap. Yeasts, bacilli of various kinds and cocci were usually 

 found in large numbers. 



Examination of the stomachs of 36 salmon has shown that 

 no microorganisms are present in this organ during the first 

 twenty-four hours, provided there is no feed in the stomach. In 

 3 out of 6 lots of fish examined, bacteria were found in the stomach 

 after the fish had been held forty-eight hours and in one other 

 lot the bacteria were recovered from the stomach after holding 

 seventy-two hours. 



In examining the ceca of salmon from 7 different lots, bacteria 

 were found in but one lot when the fish were examined immediate- 

 ly on being caught. One lot showed bacteria in the ceca after 



