REPORT ON ARTIFICIAL FISH CULTURE. 41 



this method of multiplication that 'Messrs. Agas- 

 siz and Voght procured all the embryos necessary 

 for their studies on the development of the 

 palee, a species of salmon of the Swiss lakes the 

 anatomical history of which these two naturalists 

 published in 1842. The philosophical fact, then, 

 upon which M. de Quatrefages relied to stimulate 

 agriculturists to the manufacturing- of fish, in the 

 -same way they produce grain or meats, offered 

 nothing new to zoologists, and to their remem- 

 brance M. de Quatrefages was the first to recall 

 the claim of Goldstein as the discoverer of arti- 

 ficial fecundation. But under our system of edu- 

 cation, truths well known by naturalists are 

 unknown by most other men, even the best 

 informed, and it was not unnecessary to call 

 public attention forcibly to this application of 

 science to rural industry, which not only had not 

 profited by the results of the discovery, but I 

 think I can safely affirm that there were then not 

 ten agricultural authors or teachers in all France, 

 who had the least idea of the service which 

 physiologists had so long before rendered them. 

 Under such circumstances we should not be 

 astonished to find in one of the most secluded 

 valleys of the chain of Vosges, two illiterate 

 fishermen, but endowed by nature with a rare 

 spirit of observation and a rarer perseverance, 



