54 COD AND OTHER SALT FISH FOR THE MARKET. 



EFFECT OF FUNGUS. 



The fish on which the fungus occurs are usually yellow from age, 

 and when thus affected are discarded. The muscle fibers on which 

 the fungus grows, when mounted on a glass slide for microscopic ex- 

 amination, separate into fine particles, and are found to be corroded, 

 having jagged edges. Whether the corrosion is produced by this 

 fungus alone is difficult to determine, as no examination made of 

 the fish either at the factory or in the laboratory showed the fungus 

 growing alone ; there were always present the cocci and bacilli, though 

 in most cases there was no indication of redness. 



Loss. 



So far as known the loss from this source is slight. When it is 

 found on comparatively fresh fish, they are scrubbed with a brush in 

 running water, after which they are powdered. Little attention, 

 however, is given to this fungus, so that the loss may be greater than 

 is supposed. 



MORPHOLOGY. 



The fungus grows close to the tissue of the fish, but, not develop- 

 ing the cotton-like mycelium of the ordinary molds on this sub- 

 stratum, is not perceptible until the mature conidia are formed, when 

 the darkening occurs. The description as given by Farlow a is for 

 this stage of the fungus: " Spores spherical, 3.5 to 5 /A in diameter, 

 fuscous, attached in chains (average 12-15), arising from secundly 

 fasciculate hyphse, which are pulvinately compacted in scattered 

 spots." 



The fungus is pleomorphous, developing chains of oidia, when ger- 

 mination takes place on the fish as a substratum, each oidium de- 

 veloping a short stunted hypha. This hypha becomes a conidi- 

 ophore, developing conidia acropetally. The oidia remain colorless 

 and form septa at various angles, dividing the cell into two, three, or 

 four parts, and these again may subdivide, by the formation of fur- 

 ther septa. The conidia and the conidiophores darken, and at this 

 stage the fungus becomes perceptible on the fish. 



GERMINATION. 



When inoculations are made into nutrient media directly from the 

 fungus on the fish, development is very slow and scanty, only a few 

 spores developing, and the time may extend from eight to twenty- 

 three days. In one case a germination occurred in three days. The 

 form of the fungus when developed on artificial media is so different 



a Loc. cit. 



