470 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [44] | 
is expelled by contraction, so that the entire quantity of blood requires 
a longer time to pass through the heart? i 
I am, therefore, of opinion that when the starving period commences, 
circulation first of all becomes less energetic, and continues in this 
course until in some organ or other, owing to insufficient respiration of 
the tissues, a state of “liquidation” is produced. As soon as vital 
organs are attacked in this way, death takes place. But if there is a 
solid organ which does not contain many vessels, but is rich in albumen, 
‘and may, comparatively speaking, be easily spared, it serves as a 
feeder, first: of all to the vegetative central organs, and in the second — 
place to the rest of the body, thus making it possible to maintain life. 
Besides the innate energy of the dividing processes, which is depend- 
ent on the temperature, conditions like the ones described above are, 
in my opinion, mainly instrumental in imparting to animals the greatly 
varying ability to stand hunger. 
Such nutrition, however, must never reach a degree which would 
again render the energy of circulation normal, for in that case the state 
of “liquidation” would come to an end, and the food-supplying source 
would cease. 
We thus find in the spring salmon, and more especially interpersed 
with the thin muscle fibers, rows of fine grains of fat, until in the early 
part of summer the growth of the ovarium in geometrical progression 
leads to a positive monthly consumption of substance, the demands of 
which, in addition to the self-consumption proper, become very urgent. 
If indications do not deceive, the swelling of the spleen, the extension of 
its arteries, the filling up of its net-work with blood, are powerful aids 
in causing the pressure of the blood to sink further, of increasing the 
state of “liquidation,” and extending it to a constantly-growing number 
of muscle fibers, even such as are ina relatively favorable position with 
regard to the blood-vessels. At the time, therefore, when the monthly 
erowth of the ovarium has risen from the thousandths to the hundredths 
per cent. of the weight of the body—from the middle of June till the 
end of July—we notice that the filling up with grains of fat becomes 
inore intense, some of the fibers becoming almost opaque; and we see 
those black, shining, jelly-like spleen, resembling large clots of blood, 
which cause a decreased circulation of blood, less abundant in blood 
‘particles. 
Meanwhile the ovarium is growing steadily, and the capillary nets of 
the follicle, numbering 10,000 to 20,000, begin tomake such an abundant 
collateral blood-channei that its influence on the pressure of the blood 
renders the spleen superfluous. We thus see the spleen gradually dimin- 
ish again, beginning in August, and remain at its minimum size from 
September till the spawning period. The ovarium, owing to its chang- 
ing quantity of blood, is now able to regulate the intensity of the process 
of “liquidation.” This seeming change of the phenomena, however, has 
this rule m common, that, in some way or other, the pressure of blood 
