299 



subject in relation to the death and disease of fishes was 

 based. 



The CHAIRMAN, in putting the resolution, said he would 

 make but two remarks : first to remind the audience of what 

 Dr. Day had said, that the great majority of fish were 

 carnivorous animals, feeding either on other fish, or on 

 other marine animals of various kinds he was speak- 

 ing particularly of marine fish so that they might be 

 tempted to parody Peter Pindar's lines, and say that these 

 fish have other fish to bite, and those fish other fish, ad 

 infinitum ; but that was not quite true, because in the long 

 run you were brought down to the vegetable world, and 

 probably the whole of the predaceous population of the sea 

 depended ultimately upon those microscopic organisms 

 known as diatomacese, which in the ultimate resort were 

 the source of the greater portion of the protein compounds 

 on which all animals had to live. It was a wonderful 

 thing, if one considered the abundance of life in the Arctic 

 Ocean, the prodigious quantities of carnivorous animals of 

 all sorts which inhabited those seas if you traced them step 

 by step, the grampus feeding on the fish, the fish on the 

 crustacean or on the mollusc, and the mollusc probably on 

 some crustacean, or still smaller animals, but in the long 

 run the ultimate store of food for all was in the prodigious 

 quantity of diatomaceae which occurred on the surface of 

 the ocean, and by the help of some fish converted oxygen 

 and ammoniacal substance into living beings. The only 

 other point he would refer to, was the admirable principle 

 Dr. Day had laid down, that before you abolished laws 

 you should carefully inquire into their foundations. That 

 was perfectly true : whether you were making laws or 

 abolishing them, you should be very sure what you were 



