TEOUT 



upon which Dr. C. S. Patterson performed an 

 autopsy. The stomach walls were as thin as a 

 sheet of tissue paper. At the time I believed, 

 and, if I remember rightly, he also thought that 

 this was due to atrophy, but I am inclined to 

 think that this idea was only partially correct. 

 The stomach walls of the autumn yearling trout, 

 which is artificially reared on soft food, do not 

 show any marked abnormality in the way of 

 thinness ; but as the trout's age increases, so 

 does the thickness of the stomach wall decrease 

 in proportion to its size. This leads me to be- 

 lieve that the development of the stomach wall, 

 at any rate, and probably also of the glands 

 secreting the gastric juice and the digestive 

 apparatus generally, gradually ceases when at 

 about the age of eight or nine months if the 

 trout is fed upon soft food. Probably, also, a 

 certain amount of atrophy and dilatation of the 

 stomach wall is produced. If my observations 

 are correct, so also is the conclusion that a trout 

 which cannot digest hard food, of which a great 

 part of his natural food consists, will not have a 

 really fair chance when turned out. Therefore, 

 I say, turn out your trout in November, unless 

 you can feed them on such food as shrimps, 



