Median. — Goitre Among Trout 67 



Mr. Fearing, Newport, R. I. : Did you find that it came from 

 overfeeding or from had food? Was it not due to had food? 



Mr. Meehan : Oh, no. Our food was good — it was always tested. 



Mr. Fearing: Accidentally you might have used decayed food, 

 might you not? 



Mr. Meehan : No tainted liver, lungs or other food in the slightest 

 degree improper, was ever put into the pond. Every piece was ex- 

 amined before being used. We were very particular about that, be- 

 cause we had some bad experience with feeding tainted meat. 



Mr. Fearing: That will bring fungus, if it is overfed, every time. 



Mr. Meehan: Yes, overfeeding will bring on the disease, and it was 

 very bad in some of our ponds from that cause; but Ave found, as I 

 said, that when the food supply was reduced, sometimes as much as 

 one-half, and after thinning out the pond a little, the sickness dis- 

 appeared. 



Mr. W. O. Buck, Neosho, Mo.: I remember hearing the theory 

 advanced that water once infected continued to breed the disease in 

 other fish introduced into the same water. If I understand Mr. Meehan, 

 his experience seems to contradict this: that is, when the water in the 

 troughs and ponds was changed the lish recovered. Is my under- 

 standing correct? 



Mr. Meehan : That is right. Of course. I am speaking now solely 

 of goitre. 



Mr. Buck : Yes. that is what 1 had reference to. 



Mr. Meehan: Of course those fish that were fungused badly died, 

 but some of those where the fungus had just started recovered when 

 we used salt; but we never bothered ourselves much about trying to 

 save fungused lish. 



Mr. Buck: But if I understood you correctly, you succeeded in 

 saving some of your young fish, or apparently so, by turning in more 

 water, thinning them out, etc. Although they had shown symptoms of 

 the disease they appeared afterward to recover from it. 



Mr. Meehan: This disease, which at the time they called sore throat, 

 was brought to my attention by the station superintendents. This was 

 in February, I think, or the early part of March, and we immediately 

 began shipping those lish out, notifying the people who were to receive 

 them, of the reason, and asking them to make special note of results. 

 The majority of those who sent back word to us reported that the 

 lish were doing very well; that for a short time after being put in the 

 water they seemed languid, but in a little while appeared to be in first 

 rate condition. A few died that were kept in small retaining ponds 

 built by some applicants, so that they could observe the condition of 

 the fish better. Possibly that might have had something to do with the 

 loss, because perhaps too many were put in the small ponds ; but I 

 cannot speak of that authoritatively, not having seen them. 



Mr. Buck: It seems to me that this point is a vital one to be 

 determined, and 1 hope some one here may throw more light on it. 



