
THE PROPAGATION OF THE GOLDFISH 

with the normal processes of development, influences the first generation 
and these may transmit the effect and continue the peculiarity in the 
future generations. 
Abnormal modifications in the goldfish breeds are not restricted to 
the fins, but affect the body, head and other organs, but in some respects 
the type is fixed, as in the number of scales in the lateral line and the number 
of transverse rows of scales on the body, though a displacement of the organs, 
a shortening of the body muscles and of the segments of the vertebra, is 
evident in the shortened body; to compensate for which the overlap of 
the scales and of their surface varies very considerable in the different breeds. 
Variations of the head consist most largely in ashortening, by compression, 
of thesnout and of the position of the mouth,which in some breeds is modified 
to an almost vertical position. ‘he form and position of the nostrils are 
also changed on the short snout. 
The degenerative changes are not alone due to careful selection, but 
are also attributable to the restraint of an aquarium existence; the enforced 
disuse of the muscles producing an exaggerated growth of all the fins, as 
“the material saved from expenditure in muscular effort may be expended 
in growth in another direction, and culminates in a lengthening of all the 
fins, so that they are an actual hindrance in swimming.” 
The highly bred varieties have become entirely unfitted to existence 
other than in the aquarium under the fostering care of the breeder, and the 
young of such breeds, if they survive at all, revert more and more 
to the ancestral type with each succeeding generation when deprived of 
this supervision. 
A sluggishness of habit has also been developed by the Oriental breed- 
ers, as both the descriptions of authorities on the propagation of the gold- 
fish and the observations of fanciers prove; and with some of the highly 
developed varieties has been carried to such extent that harmless fishes of 
other species must be kept with them in the aquaria to agitate the water 
and prevent suffocation. 
Some of the races are so monstrously developed and the displacement 
or the crowding of the swimming bladder so extensive that they cannot 
maintain their equilibrium in the water, but assume a position as though 
standing on their heads or tails, or partly or entirely reversed. 
Professor Ryder prepared tables of measurements, in millimetres, of 
the three breeds of goldfishes obtained from Philadelphia breeders in 
March, 1893, which are here given in condensed form; but it should be 
stated that at this writing more varieties and even more wonderful developed 
fishes are sucessfully bred. 
