greatly enlarged fins in some of the varieties is correlated with a degeneiation of the muscular system 

 through disuse, owing to "their continued restraint in small aquaria for many geneiations." The 

 feeble and almost totally deficient swimming powers of certain varieties are said to have been "pur- 

 posely cultivated by oriental fish fanciers," and the energy that would have been expended "in the 

 production of motion of the body in the water has reacted in other ways upon their organization, 

 and especially upon the growth of the fins." In the elaboration of this theory, Ryder suggested that 

 the enlarged fins may serve as supplemental respiratory organs, the caudal in particular being very 

 richly supplied with capillaries and often presenting an enormous surface for the possible exchange 

 of gases; and he asked whether this hypertrophy of the fins may not have "been developed partially 

 in physiological response to artificial conditions of respiration * * * in the restricted and badly 

 aerated tanks and aquaria in which they have been bred for centuries." 



It is not necessary to discuss the foregoing views, but it should be remarked that the statements 

 regarding the breeding of Japanese goldfish in badly aerated or restricted aquaria and tanks are 

 entirely erroneous, and any theory based on such an unwarranted assumption is untenable, for. as will 

 hereafter be seen, the Japanese have never raised goldfish under such conditions, and the salient feat- 

 ures of the various kinds of ponds in which they have for generations been hatching, rearing, and 

 holding their fish are the ample space afforded and the most perfect oxygenation of the water. 



A number of the minor and some of the major varieties of goldfish now grown in America and 

 Europe and called "Japanese" are unknown to the Japanese breeders, and were either of Chinese origin 

 or were produced under their new occidental environment, either with or without Japanese stock. 

 While many ephemeral freaks are necessarily produced in the course of the culture operations, the 

 only varieties that are established and standard are those herein described. 



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