MR. SHAW'S EXPERIMENTS. 187 



occupy ponds No. I, 2, 3, continued in a breeding 

 state which lasted throughout the whole of the winter 

 of 1838-39, I impregnated the ova of three adult 

 female salmon from the river with the milt of a male 

 taken from each of the three ponds, the whole of which 

 ova matured. This at once removes any doubt which 

 may have been entertained regarding the constitutional 

 strength of individuals, reared under such circum- 

 stances." 



I have thus quoted, at large, the account of several 

 experiments made by Mr. Shaw. With regard to their 

 results, they are, as he himself states, most extraor- 

 dinary; nor, in fact, is it admitted, would he have 

 ventured to lay them before the public, had he not 

 been reassured with respect to them, over and over 

 again, on eight successive occasions repeating the 

 detailed process. I shall now insert what is appended, 

 merely in the form of a note to the above relation. 



" As I believe it has been objected to my views or 

 rather practice regarding this mode of impregnation, 

 that the generative influence may have been in some 

 other way effected, than through the medium of the 

 parr, I therefore took every means to prove the truth- 

 ful results of my experiments, by varying in some 

 measure, their conditions. Thus, in two instances, I 

 took a portion of the ova from the female and placed 

 them, without impregnation, in a stream of pure water. 

 The result was, as I anticipated : up to the termination 

 of the general hatching season, they exhibited no ap- 

 pearance of vitality. The female from which one lot of 

 ova was taken and placed in water without impregna- 

 tion, was the female with which the four parrs were 

 spawned. They were placed in the same stream, but 

 in a separate vessel, from the four lots impregnated. 



