54 American Fisheries Society 



stripping process which some other fish culturists, to my mind, have 

 disregarded, the result being injury to the fish. I know of many such 

 instances ; I have specimens of fish from various state hatcheries as 

 well as our own where undoubted injury has resulted to the ovaries or 

 some other part of the fish. But I wanted to emphasize the fact that 

 I do not say that artificial propagation or stripping of the fish is neces- 

 sarily fatal to the fish ; injury is the result of careless or improper 

 manipulation of the fish. Many things should be considered in that 

 connection besides merely the stripping process. I have seen a so-called 

 spawn taker grab a fish around the neck, if it had a neck, put it down 

 between his legs — he would be wearing a rough, oilskin suit — and 

 squeeze out the eggs until he could not get any more ; then he would 

 fling the fish, with a collapsed abdomen, into the water. There the fish 

 would remain until the abdomen inflated again, and after a while it 

 would struggle up and swim off, feeling very sick. Take that fish after- 

 wards and open it and you would find it full of water. It is such people 

 that I want to caution. It was to help in that direction that the Bureau 

 of Fisheries proposed to conduct some experiments at one of the stations 

 with the rainbow trout. There have been set aside at that station a 

 thousand or so fish, with controls, raceways and so on, so that experi- 

 ments may be made in the taking of eggs by various processes and note 

 made of the results. 



With regard to the suggestion that fish sometimes retain the eggs, 

 I myself know that to be a fact. It may be due to a natural or to an 

 unnatural cause ; it is not necessarily to be taken for granted that they 

 have been stripped. Some other factor may have been a consideration 

 in the matter. So I repeat that I do not seek to convey the impression 

 that artificial taking of eggs is necessarily injurious, but that artificial 

 taking of eggs in the wrong way may be injurious, as is shown by certain 

 specimens in my possession. 



Mr. Titcomb : The rainbow trout, of course, in eastern waters has 

 always caused trouble. Since the early days there are references in the 

 reports to glassy eggs obtained from rainbows. You will get them 

 from rainbow trout the first year they are stripped ; if any ill effects are 

 shown as a result of stripping, the subject would be a very interesting 

 one for study. I wanted to ask Dr. Kendall just how be obtained the 

 specimens that he has to show. Were they taken at random? 



Dr. Kendall: Some were sent to me from our hatcheries with a 

 request for information as to what the trouble was. Other fish were sent 

 pursuant to instructions to forward a certain number of females of a 

 given age. Some had been stripped and some had not. Some of my 

 fish I obtained at random in state hatcheries, fish that had been stripped 

 once ; some of our fish had been stripped twice. Others I obtained 

 myself and had them sent in. I had no voice in the selection of the 

 fish ; I simply got the fish that were sent. The first intimation of 

 trouble with the ovaries and eggs was before I recognized the exact 

 anatomical arrangement of the fish. Several years ago some fish were 



