104 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



The redness of the codfish examined by Farlow (2) appeared 

 after the fish had been landed from the vessel, but in some cases the 

 fish became red while in the vessel. A microscopic examination 

 showed that the redness was due to a minute plant, known by the 

 name of Clathrocystis roseo-persicina, which consisted of a number 

 of minute cells filled with red colouring-matter and imbedded in a 

 mass of slime. This schizophyte did not increase rapidly at a tempera- 

 ture below 65° Fahr. The plant was found in the packing-houses, 

 on walls, floors, and the flakes on which the fish were laid. Farlow 

 notes that the salt used at Gloucester came from Cadiz and Trapani. 

 The Cadiz salt had a rose-coloured tinge, and he found in it con- 

 siderable quantities of the same minute plant that he found in the 

 red fish. The Trapani salt was pure and he does not specifically 

 state that he found the organism in it. He considers that the fish 

 was infected by means of the salt, favoured by warm temperature. 



Another organism found by Farlow on the red codfish was an 

 organism which appeared in fours, and which bore a strong resem- 

 blance to Gloeocopsa crepidinum Thuret. This organism he described 

 under the name of Sarcina morrhuae n. sp.; cells colourless, cuboidal, 

 5-8 fjL in diameter, united in fours and surrounded by a thin hyaline 

 envelope; colonies 10-20 ij. in diameter, formed by division of the 

 cells in three dimensions; colonies heaped together in irregularly- 

 shaped, lobulated masses. 



Later a notice (3) of the Clathrocystis and Sarcina, together with 

 a description of a third species Oidium pulvinatum, Farlow, was 

 published in the Revue Mycologigue. 



In 1886, Farlow (4) published an account of further cases of 

 reddened codfish appearing in European journals. Bertherand (5) 

 gave an account of poisoning that occurred among troops at vSidi-Ben 

 Abbes. The fish, of Newfoundland origin, had a vermilion colour 

 extending from the surface into the flesh. The colour was attributed 

 by Megnin (6) to the growth of a fungus which he named Coniothecium 

 bertherandi. The editor of the Revue, Roumeguere (7), raised the 

 question of the identity of the two species described by Farlow and 

 Megnin. 



Subsequently specimens of reddened fish from Bordeaux and 

 Dieppe were received by Roumeguere and the colour ascribed to the 

 presence of Clathrocystis. 



Poulsen (8) found on mud, near Copenhagen, a Sarcina which 

 he named S. littoralis, which, upon exchange of specimens, was found 

 to be identical with 5. morrhuae, and on account of the date of publica- 

 tion the name littoralis had priority. 



