116 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



in pairs, the longer axes being parallel, and the adjacent sides flattened. 

 Two or three fish showed bodies which resembled Placoma (Engler- 

 Prantl) (19). The cells were as large as 5 /i or 8 ^i in diameter. They 

 were generally rounded in shape, showing one segmentation, which 

 divided the cell into two hemispheres, separated by a clear zone. 

 Occasionally another segmentation, at right angles to the first, making 

 three, and not infrequently four divisions, separated by clear spaces, 

 was observed. The fresh preparation showed no colouring matter, 

 so that, evidently, it was a species of Schizophyceae. These bodies 

 resembled in shape (but not in colour content) those illustrated by 

 Le Dantec, and thought by him to be the same as Clathrocystis 

 (Farlow). 



None of the organisms found, except cocci, stained satisfactorily 

 with the ordinary aniline stains, and Gram's method no better than 

 any of the others. Heated methylene blue gave the best results until 

 Jenner's, Leishman's, Wright's and Giemsa's stains were tried, when 

 Giemsa's proved to be much better than any of the others. Rose- 

 bengal in 5 per cent, carbolic acid gave fair results. The difficulty in 

 staining was largely due to the impossibility of making preparations 

 on the slide. When the material was transferred to a drop of water 

 it became slimy and sputum-like (plasmoptysis). After fixation with 

 heat the stain did not take hold, and the preparation often washed 

 off. Various substances were tried instead of water, such as ether, 

 xylol, chloroform, alcohol, acetic acid, methyl alcohol, and so forth. 

 Of these, the last two gave the best results, but acetic acid had a 

 tendency to precipitate the material. The most satisfactory pre- 

 parations were obtained with 16 per cent, solar salt solution, dried, 

 fixed in equal parts of ether and absolute alcohol, or in absolute 

 methyl alcohol, and stained with Giemsa. These preparations were 

 often spoiled by the salt crystals, either from their remaining on the 

 slide, or from the organisms collecting in great masses immediately 

 around the crystals. Fixation with heat not only gave poor results, 

 but the organisms were noticeably smaller. With Rose-bengal, some 

 very clear but lightly stained preparations were obtained; the organ- 

 isms were, however, appreciably smaller when compared with similar 

 preparations made with Giemsa. These remarks on staining are 

 equally true of the conditions experienced when making preparations 

 from cultures from the various media employed. 



3. Isolation of Causal Organism. 



The first sample of fish received came from the Digby office of 

 the Maritime Fish Company. The pink colour was in spots over 



