Fish Culturists' Association. 35 



Spawn from own rearing of fish nearly two years old, in pond 

 No. 1. Ainsworth screens. Total number 4,450, or fifty-one per 

 cent impregnated. Unirapregnated 2,142. 



Artificial, taken in small quantities of water, and about one-half 

 taken dry. The detailed accounts do not make hardly any difference 

 between the two ways of taking ; if anything, it is in favor of small 

 quantity of water. Total number 35,243, or fifty per cent of impreg- 

 nated. Unimpregnated 17,480. 



My fish are not done spawning yet ; will get about 6,000 yet. 

 Have put in total number 120,609 of my own ; from F. Matlier 

 1,917. Total, 122,526. 



The flow of my spring is 2,500 gallons per minute. It never 

 freezes inside my hatching-house, which is well built of stone. 



Shippensburg, Cumberland county, Penn. 



ON THE FECUNDATION OF FISH. 



By Charles Bell. 



I have been for some years past considerably interested in the 

 artificial propagation of fish, and I have read every publication on 

 the subject that I have had access to, especially those regarding either 

 the theory or the practice of artificial impregnation. And, in so 

 doing, I have hit upon one point upon which the writers on pisci- 

 culture agree with each other, but do not agree with the best authori- 

 ties upon physiology, that is, the " spermatozoa,'' or the fecundating 

 principle of the seminal fluid of the male fish, and it is to this point 

 that I would like to call the attention of the association, as I believe 

 it to be of vital importance that we should understand the true nature 

 of the " zoosperm." I find that the general impression among 

 writers on pisciculture is, that they are living animal organisms, 

 while physiologists concur in the opinion that they are simply fila- 

 ments of albuminoid substance. With your permission I will quote 

 to you from that admirable little work by Mr. Livingstone Stone, 

 entitled "Domesticated Trout," and from Mr. Fred Mather's articles 

 in the " Farm and Fireside Journal ;" both of these gentlemen are 

 practical fish culturists, and undoubted authority upon the subject 

 I will also quote from J. P. Dalton, Jr., M. D., Professor of 

 Physiology and Microscopic Anatomy in the College of Physicians 

 and Surgeons, New York. 



