Report on Diseases and Abnormalities in Fishes. 19 



in size, were observed in the capsule. The white bodies contained 

 an amorphous granular matter with some corpuscles. 



A codling fillet containing' a long tumour is shown in fig. 48. It 

 is seen to be just a portion of the muscles. It indicates how the 

 infection of the muscles may cut across the myotomes. The muscle 

 layers were not broken ; the shaded part was brown. The 

 diseased part is not separated from the good. In another codling 

 a tumour in the muscles could be felt from the outside. It was 

 round, and of a reddish, dry, cheesy consistency. It extended 

 right to the skin. It was composed of an amorphous mat-like 

 material, granular in structure. No columnar structure was made 

 out in the central region. The external surface of the tumour was 

 soft ; the outer rim was stratified and showed large cell-like cavities. 

 The cavity in which the mass lay was bound by tough fibrous skin. 

 This appears to be a mass of affected muscle being gradually broken 

 down. 



A fillet of a codling exhibited a series of cavities in the muscle 

 (fig. 45). The cysts lie in the run of the muscles, but they some- 

 times divide up a bundle. They are extensive, irregular in shape, 

 and, in some cases, extend inwards to the vertebral column. One or 

 two of the cavities were clean holes, having a thick fibrous wall 

 bounding them. Some were abscesses ; they had no fascia nor 

 fibrous wall, and the muscle was suffused with blood. The two sides 

 of the cyst were connected with tissue suffused with blood. The 

 cavhy x. was of this character. It extended out to the skin. A 

 considerable portion of the skin was without muscle, and from the 

 outside of the fish appeared as a dark region. jSTo perforation of 

 the skin was made out. On cutting into one of the cysts, a reddish 

 thin watery fluid came out. The muscle was consumed here to 

 within 3 mm. of the skin. In another cyst the cavity extended to 

 within 6 mm. of the skin. 



I think that these cavities have been occupied by tumours of 

 diseased muscle, which had decayed, and had been expelled by an 

 opening in the skin. Another codling fillet had a large inflamed 

 cavity stretching for a considerable distance along the skin.* 



A saithe showed a condition of repair of similar cysts. Long red 

 cavities were present in the fillet. One large red mass of tissue 

 next the skin had a little bit of yellow matter in it. It had 

 evidently opened to the exterior, and later on had healed up again. 



Some dead matter was still left in one or two small masses (c.) 

 visible in the solid fibrous material (/., fig. 164). They seemed 

 to be connected by little passages to the exterior (a/p.). The 

 fibrous mass no doubt occupies the space formerly held by the 

 diseased muscle. The aponeurosis will, as the pressure is relieved 

 by the discharge of the decayed matter, tend to form the fibrid 

 tissue. And it will do so until stayed by a return of pressure. 



An example of the discharge of matter from the inflammation of 

 the interior of the swim-bladder was observed. A small cod, captured 

 at the Bay of Nigg, had in its shoulder a hole which penetrated to 

 within a short distance of the lateral process of the vertebra. It was 

 possible to trace the healed channel right to the side of the swim- 

 bladder. The lips of the depression were a little papillose, but 



*Ina saithe similar cavities were, after preservation, green and red. In the 

 diseased tissue spores, similar to those described above ( Pleistophora tiippo- 

 glossoides), were found in great quantity. 



