262 Modern Fishculture in Fresh and Salt Water. 



"I now wish to mention this epidemic in my next 

 reports to the State and to the United States Fish Com- 

 missions, and will feel obliged if you can give any in- 

 formation concerning it; its character, time of appear- 

 ance and departure, and extent of territory over which 

 it extended, with the privilege of using your reply for 

 publication over your name. I can say that during an 

 experience in fishculture covering nearly a quarter of a 

 century no such disease among fishes has been ob- 

 served by me, nor has it been recorded by others, to 

 my knowledge. 



"Believing that our combined experience may possi- 

 bly be of future use, anything which you may say on 

 this subject, if such a thing has ever been brought to 

 your notice, will be of value. 



"Very respectfully yours, 



"FRED MATHER/' 



Dr. Bashford Dean and Dr. Stratford, of Columbia 

 College, and several other men eminent in the study 

 of animals in health and disease had never seen nor 

 heard of anything like it. Prof. H. W. Conn, of the 

 Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn., thought 

 that it was caused by bacteria. These forms were pres- 

 ent, as they always are in diseased tissue, but whether 

 they were the primary cause or not Prof. Conn did not 

 care to say. 



Our ponds were clean, and as there is no chance for 

 pollution above us, the cause was to be looked for be- 

 yond foul water. Sometimes a trout would be sudden- 

 ly seized with a spasm, or giddiness, and would rush 

 about on its side without seeming to know where it 

 was going, and this, with the questions of summer vis- 

 itors, who asked to know what I could not tell them, 



