232 BRITISH FRESH-WATER FISHES 



and incapable of digesting food. Dr. Barton, while agreeing 

 that the stomach ceased to discharge its normal functions, 

 conclusively proved that what the Committee had interpreted as 

 a morbid affection during life, was really a stage of post mortem 

 decomposition.* It is satisfactory to note that the Committee 

 have heartily accepted his correction of their mistake, and that 

 a paper by Dr. Barton has been printed as Appendix III. to 

 the Twentieth Annual Report of the Scottish Fishery Board, 

 showing his concurrence with the Committee in their inter- 

 pretation of the symptoms as those of prolonged fasting. 



\\\ another place Dr. Barton, after examining nearly two 

 hundred salmon in 1899, affirmed his belief that "the salmon 

 who reaches our rivers has begun a long physiological fast," 

 and agreed with Dr. Noel Paton in finding " how feeble the 

 peptogenic powers of the upper part of the digestive tract in 

 salmon become when the fish enters the rivers." f In a later 

 paper the same observer has given the result of his examina- 

 tion of kelt salmon, both from the tidal and upper waters. 

 In every case the stomach was quite empty and contracted, 

 "showing no very recent feeding, yet there was just sufficient 

 material in the lower bowel to confirm {} strengthen) the 

 suspicion that food had been digested. ... It is very evident 

 that kelts do not feed with the frequency that sportsmen would 

 have us believe." \ Even this cautious inference is limited by 

 Dr. Barton's proviso in his report upon kelts from the Tweed : 

 " If staining with osmic acid is to be taken as proof that fat 

 cells in the lacteal system actually contain fat, then the sections 

 from tidal kelts must be taken to mean that these fish have 

 absorbed nourishment within recent times." 



It is notoriously difficult to prove a negative ; but, before 

 acting upon Professor Seeley's authority, and proclaiming kelts 

 to be mischievous vermin, devouring their own young, it is 



* Journal of Anatomy and Physiology, April, 1900, pp. 298-9. 



t Ibid. 



% Ibid., January, 1902, pp. 142-6. 



