7 
[43] BIOLOGY OF THE RHINE SALMON. 469 
we cannot tell whether this process takes place in the liver or in the 
colorless blood-particles. It is not at all necessary that the bulk of it 
should circulate through the blood, if only it is capable, when required, 
of being rapidly absorbed by the blood, like the “glycogen” of the liver 
or the fat of the fatty tissue. However this may be, there is in the body, 
independent of nutrition, a certain quantity of albumen which, owing 
to the locality where it is found, becomes quickly disintegrated, unless 
there are organs which rapidly assimilate and, so to speak, saveit. Simi- 
lar in its course to nutrition is the “liquidation” of a large organ con- 
taining plenty of albumen, if this process can be carried on in such a 
manner as not to affect the vegetative functions of the heart, nerves, 
and breathing apparatus. 
In the salmon, therefore, it is not only the growing sexual glands 
‘which derive advantage from “liquidation” of the muscle of the trunk, 
but even the gristle of the nose grows, large wounds become cicatrized 
and all the muscles of the fins which are necessary for moderate motion 
and proper steering decrease hardly at all; they seem to live on sub- 
stances from the muscle of the trunk. In short, apart from the muscle 
of the trunk, the fish lives like an animal which is scantily fed. The 
cause of this is that it has in its body genuine “stock-albumen.” 
And still we cannot speak of it as of a ‘‘ reserve substance,” for there is 
in the muscle of the trunk hardly any intermediate tissue. It is the 
excitable and contractile fibril of the muscle which, from its protoplasm, 
supplies substance. It is not a falling to pieces of entire elements of 
tissue and an absorption of their broken remnants, but the fibers of the 
muscle remain alive. With the exception of a few places (the convex 
portion of the tail-part of the vertebral column) I have, even in cases 
where degeneration had far advanced, never found entirely empty mus- 
cle fibers. Nor have I ever found in large sea-salmon—even when, by 
the length of their nose, or by the ovarium, they showed traces of hay- 
ing recently passed through a spawning period—any signs of the new 
formation of entire muscle fibers. Perhaps not a single fibril is com- 
pletely assimilated with the muscle of the trunk. 
I do not think it has been proved beyond a doubt that the fatty 
degeneration and the “liquidation” of an organ always go together, 
even if, according to the weight of the fins, this seems to be the case 
with the Rhine salmon. 
We may well ask here: What is the principal cause which, when the 
starving period commences, compels the muscle of the trunk to act as 
a feeder ? 
I am here reminded of the technical rule laid down by physiologists, 
that frogs should be fed on meat if the circulation through their various 
organs was to be clearly demonstrated. What is the faint pulse of sick 
people, accompanied by serious disturbances of the process of nutrition; 
but an indication that, insufficiently elastic, owing to the tension of the 
vessels, but little blood flows into the heart before every pulS&ttion, and 
