58 Tzcciity-sci'ciitli Aiiiiiial Meeting 



gating other fish than trout, but the extensive and varied work 

 of the United States Fish Commission, created a year later, had 

 not been begun, and hatching work in this country on all other 

 fish than brook trout (S. fontinalis) had, up to that tune, been 

 experimental rather than practical, so that fish culture not only 

 meant trout culture, but trout culture meant the breeding of the 

 fontinalis, or brook trout. 



It was to brook trout breeders, therefore, that the above- 

 mentioned call was issued, and the object of the call was to form 

 an association for the protection of their commercial interests. 

 But upon the assembling of the meeting, it became apparent 

 at once that something altogether broader and less personal was 

 in the minds of those present, and I think I can truly say that 

 that which I may perhaps term the selfish feature of the call 

 scarcely ever showed itself at all in the meeting. From the 

 very beginning of the meeting, the little grouj) of men assem- 

 bled, appeared to be actuated more by an earnest and generous 

 interest in the cause of fish culture than by a desu'e to promote 

 private ends. The spirit that prevailed seems to me to have 

 been that which has characterized the meetings of the Associa- 

 tion ever since. It was comprehensive rather than narrow, de- 

 voted rather than self-seeking, and good-will to all prevailed 

 over sordid feelings of competition with each other. If I remem- 

 ber rightly, hardly a word was said about regulating the prices 

 of fish culturists' products or increasing the pecuniary profits 

 of the business. Not a resolution bearing upon the pecuniar\- 

 side of the subject was passed. It seems as if this handful of 

 pioneers had a foresight of greater and better things. At all 

 events, if the pecuniary considerations had anything to do with 

 prompting the call of the meeting, they had no place in the 

 meeting itself. The meeting having come to order, and a tem- 

 porary Chairman and Secretary having been chosen, it was voted 

 at once and unanimously to form a permanent organization, and 

 Dr. Edmunds and the writer were appointed a Committee to 

 draft a Constitution. Each member of the Committee presented 

 a separate form for a Constitution, the one offered by the writer 

 being the one finally adopted. 



As the records of the early meetings of the Society have been 

 lost, it may not be out of place to present here the original Con- 

 stitution, as it was adopted at the time of the organization of the 

 Society. 



ft is as follows : 



