XX -ADDITIONAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE FUNGUS DISEASE 

 AFFECTING SALMON AND OTHER FISH. 



By a. B. Stirling.* 



* * * By the kindness of James Tait, esq.,t I received a common 

 river-trout and a minnow, both of which were captured near Kelso 

 bridge in Tweed Eiver; both specimens were affected with fungus — ^the 

 Saprolegnia ferax. I may here mention that I have noticed several able 

 letters, which have appeared in the Scotsman newspaper from time to 

 time, in which the writer states that the fungus is only a secondary 

 attack, and that a primary disease of an inflammatory kind first affects 

 the head and other parts of tlie salmon before the fungus can settle 

 upon it. I do not for an instant doubt the fact that the writer saw fish 

 with sores of the kind described by him upon them, when there was no 

 fungus present to cause them. I can only say that, among all the fish 

 which I have received for examhiation, consisting of salmon, sea-trout, 

 smolts, common trout, grayling, and minnows, I hav^e not seen one with 

 a sore on which this fungus was not present 5 while on every fish ex- 

 amined there were some patches of fungus which could easily be wiped 

 off, leaving only a slight stain, and in some instances no mark could be 

 discerned, and no loosening and shedding of the scales or ulceration of 

 the subjacent surface. Again, in every instance where the fungus was 

 rank, long-seated, and felted, sores in every degree, from slight abrasion 

 to sloughing, were found under them. With reference to the trout and 

 the minnow before mentioned, the trout had fungus seated upon the 

 gums of both the upper and lower jaws, which involved both the teeth 

 and lips, and had spread upward and backward ujion the head, and its 

 destructive progress could be easily traced. First, the skin of the lips 

 was broken in several places, and shreds of it were hanging loose, to 

 which the fungus was adhering ; while, as it spread backward over the 

 nostrils and crown of the head, the skin and its pigment spots could 

 still be seen intact where the fungus was seated, a portion of which had 

 been carefully shed aside to expose the skin. On each of the pectoral 

 fins a patch of young fungus was seated, and the mucous coat was seen 

 through the fungus to be quite entire ; the same appearance was seen 

 upon the anal fin and scaled parts of the body. The minnow had only 



'Procecdiugs of the Royal Society of Edinburgli, session 187ii-'79, s, No. 103, p. 232. 

 Communicate June 2, 1879. 

 tOf Kelso. 



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