62 THE OYSTER. 



they can be artificially reared like the oysters of our 

 waters. His results were given in a paper which was 

 read before the Maryland Academy of Sciences, in 

 November, 1881, and this paper was afterwards printed 

 in the American Naturalist. 



The next great step was the discovery of a simple 

 and practical method of rearing the young oysters 

 which are hatched artificially, and this step, which 

 completes the solution of the problem, and puts it 

 within our power to remove forever all danger of the 

 extermination of the oyster, is the contribution of 

 a French naturalist, M. Bouchon-Brandeley. This 

 author, like Winslow, experimented with the Portu- 

 guese oysters, and while he does not seem to have 

 been acquainted with Winslow's paper, he arrived at 

 the same conclusion, and showed that the sexes are 

 separate, that the eggs are fertilized in the water and 

 that the young may be hatched artificially; but he 

 also went one step further, and succeeded in rearing 

 in this way a very great number of seed-oysters fit for 

 planting. 



His paper was translated and printed April 19, 1883, 

 in the Bulletin of the U. S. Fish Commission. The 

 following extracts from this translation show the char- 

 acter of the methods which are employed, and the re- 

 sults which were obtained: 



" When after two years we had learned for a cer- 

 tainty that the sexes of Ostrea angulata are confined 

 to separate individuals, we immediately conceived that 

 it was possible to artificially fertilize the eggs of this 



