96 Intermediate Lectures. 



freenes.s poKsillc only to o;io who, likf liiinself, has made the 

 subject a special study and practical pursuit. After giving some 

 account of the fish culture of the ancients, Mr Armistead spoke 

 of the many rivers, lakes, and ponds, especially in the northern 

 part of Great Britain, which, if [iroperly managed, could be made to 

 produce much more than the same extent of land. Referring to the 

 previous plenteousness of fish and the present scarcity, he remarked 

 that " many rivers which thirty years ago were teeming with fish 

 had not one in them now. They were as black as ink with sewage 

 and the poisonous chemical wash of manufactories." "What," he 

 went on to say, " is wanted to inci-ease our salmon supply is 

 cultivation, not restriction. It is the opinion of Professor Huxley 

 that fishermen should be allowed to catch fish when they like, how 

 they like, and where they like. He could not go the whole length 

 of that ; but such a change in the law might be safely made if 

 cultivation was what it ought to be." In comparing artificial 

 with natural hatching, the lecturer stated that not one egg in a 

 hundred in the natural condition produced a fish, whei-eas by the 

 artificial process as many as 100 per cent, of eggs had been 

 successfully hatched, and the loss ceitaiuly never ought to exceed 

 20 per cent.. The importance of protecting and feeding fish was 

 also explained. In speaking of reproducing with a sea trout and 

 burn trout, the lecturer gave it as his opinion that they would 

 reproduce, and he mentioned that Professor Day was of opinion 

 that sea trout, sahno trutto, would in the end prove to be a sea 

 going variety of the common trout, salmofaro. After discussing 

 the natural and artificial impregnation of the ova, its progress in 

 hatching, crippled fi.sh, and diseases of fish, Mr Armistead con- 

 cluded his highly interesting lecture by exhibiting some of the 

 troughs used in the artificial hatching of fish. 



IQth February, 1883. 



Mr J. Wilson, Vice-pi'esident, in the Chair. 



Dr Grierson, Thornhil!, delivered a lecture on "The Brain and 

 Nervous System." The lecturer, who spoke without notes, dis- 

 coursed in an easy conversational style, and ti^eated his subject in 

 a most lucid manner. He gave an account of the provision that 

 has been made for the security of the great nervous centres, viz., 

 the brain and the spinal cord — the structure of the skull and the 



