794 KEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [2] 



me to suppose that the cause of the greenness was due to the water, 

 which I supposed saturated and imijregnated the substance of the oys- 

 ters, rather than to a derangement of their organic functions. Eeflect- 

 ing upon this idea, I fixed my attention upon the upper valve of an 

 oyster then 'greening' at the bottom of a park; I observed upon its 

 surface very small masses of a very deep, brilliant, green color. I brought 

 my microscope and placed upon a slide, moistened with a drop of water, 

 one of these little, deep, emerald-green masses, which I had found on the 

 the shell of the oyster ; what was my satisfaction to find that it con- 

 tained hundreds of minute attenuated animalcules, pointed at both ends. 

 They were diaphanous at their ends and slightly tinged with green in 

 the middle, where there were present many contractile i3oints." 



He says further : " These little beings behaved variously. Sometimes 

 they moved with the axis of the body inclined to the direction of move- 

 ment. Sometimes they would turn round like a magnetic needle upon 

 its pivot, or they would exhibit a sudden movement of impulsion for- 

 ward or in a retrograde direction ; sometimes again they would erect 

 themselves upon one end; they seemed to like to group themselves to- 

 gether and become entangled amongst one another without order. I 

 have seen them dart at and attack with their pointed ends, as with a 

 lance, other infusorial animalcules the size of which was greater than 

 their own." 



I would here close my citations from Gaillon. After having sought 

 to discover the relationship of the animalcule, which he so laboriously 

 describes, he decided for himself, upon the ground of the analogies 

 which he thought he saw, to class it amongst the vibrios, and he pro- 

 posed for it the name of Vibrio ostrearius. 



Injustice to Gaillon we must admit that he saw "the animalcule" 

 which he described, and that we would not describe their movements in 

 the field of the microscope much better than he has done, but this need 

 not deter us from blaming him for not pushing his studies beyond the 

 determination of the mere fact of the coexistence of these organisms 

 and the green color of the oyster, and to have quietly accepted as a suf- 

 ficient explanation of the facts the dubious pos^ hoc, ergo propter hoc. 



This superficial mode of investigation was wide of the mark, as re- 

 gards bringing about conviction and leading to any real discovery. In 

 another place Gaillon refers to a polemic, which may be said to have 

 been more playful than serious, and of which a trace may be found in* 

 the Annates maritimes (Sciences et Arts J of 1821, pages 874 to 880, and 

 in the same publication for 1822, pages 86 to 89. M, Goubeau de Billen- 

 erie, president of the civil tribunal of Marenues, denies absolutely the 

 existence of the "Vibrio," and asks for its "certificate of origin." 



But we find that in other respects he does not oppose Gaillon. 



"My opinion," says he, "is that it is necessary to take into account 

 the action of a combination of causes ; in the first place, the situation 

 of our Claires on the banks along the Seudre, the fresh water of which 



