176 THE GASTRIC JUICES 



OTHER THEORIES 



Those who hold that salmon feed when in fresh 

 water account for the accepted emptiness of their 

 stomachs as being due either to the immediate assimila- 

 tion of the food they swallow, owing to the powerful 

 action of their gastric juices, or else to the assumption 

 that salmon vomit forth the contents of their stomachs 

 directly they are hooked or netted, and before being 

 handled. This school of thinkers admit, however, 

 that the appetites of the fish are less when in fresh 

 water than in salt, and that food is but seldom found 

 in the stomachs of salmon save when they are taken 

 in salt water. If the appetites of salmon are stronger 

 in the sea, and if food is partaken of in greater 

 quantities than when in fresh water, it follows that the 

 gastric juice should, when the fish is in salt water, 

 be proportionately more rapid in its action and more 

 powerful in its character, in order to enable the fish 

 to assimilate the greater amount of the food they 

 then take. Only, however, on the reverse assumption 

 that in fresh water the gastric juice is increasing instead 

 of diminishing in its power can the members of this 

 school of belief explain the phenomena in which they 

 believe, while still having to admit, that, those isolated 

 cases in which the gastric juices have had no such 

 rapid solvent effect, are the only evidence advanced 

 by them to prove their contention. 



I remember reading the report of a commission on 

 this subject many years ago, which either directly or 



