HISTORICAL 143 



by Sergius Orata ; and the oysters of the Lucrine 

 Lake were held in high repute by the epicure. 



That the monks practised fish rearing in ponds 

 attached to their monasteries is well known ; and the 

 distinction of being the first to conduct the artificial 

 hatching of fish-eggs in Europe has been attributed 

 to a monk of the fourteenth century. 



To a German named Jacobi, however, belongs the 

 credit of having, more than a century ago, published 

 descriptions in scientific detail of his successful 

 experiments in the artificial spawning of fresh-water 

 fishes, including the trout. But the researches and 

 discoveries of Jacobi and of others who followed him, 

 though they attracted attention among the learned 

 biologists of the time, did not lead to the immediate 

 recognition of pisciculture as a practical science. It 

 was reserved for two French peasants, Remy and 

 Gehin, unaided by knowledge of previous or con- 

 temporary experiments, to rediscover, so to speak, 

 about fifty-six years ago, the art of fish hatching and 

 to demonstrate a few years later its practical utility as 

 a means of re-stocking rivers. The value of their dis- 

 covery was soon recognised by the French Govern- 

 ment. A grant of money was made, and the great 

 Piscicultural Institution at Hiiningen in Alsace, near 

 Bale, was thus in 1854 established by the erection of 



