Reprinted from THE JOURNAL OF BIOLOGICAL CHEMISTRY 

 Vol. XLIX, No. 1, November, 1921 



THE CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF THE OVARIES OF 

 FRESH WATER GAR, LEPIDOSTEUS.* 



BY ERWIN E. NELSON t AND CHARLES W. GREENE. 



(From the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Laboratory of 

 Physiology, University of Missouri, Columbia, and the Biological 

 Station of the United States Bureau of Fisheries, Fairport.) 



(Received for publication, September 10, 1921.) 

 INTRODUCTION. 



The data herein reported were obtained in the summer of 

 1917 as a part of the results of a study of fresh water fishery 

 products undertaken with a view to extending the food sources 

 available as meat substitutes. Gar eggs are of similar size and 

 color to sturgeon eggs and have been unsuccessfully used as 

 adultering substitutes for sturgeon eggs for caviar. The gar 

 eggs do not retain their color in caviar processing and are not 

 pleasing, in fact are positively objectionable, in flavor. 



Chemical analyses have not previously been reported for gar 

 roe. In fact there is a dearth of analyses of either roe or of ovaries 

 of American fishes. Greene (1921) has analyzed the ovaries 

 of the king salmon, and there is a single analysis of shad roe in 

 Atwater's paper (1888.) Greene has followed the development 

 of the salmon ovaries which occurs during the spawning migra- 

 tion. There is a great increase in egg mass with corresponding 

 accumulation of protein and lipoids in the egg yolk, of which he 

 presents evidence to show is derived from a corresponding storage 

 in the muscles. 



* Published by permission of the United States Commissioner of Fish 

 and Fisheries. 



f The data of this paper were used in part in the dissertation presented' 

 by Mr. Erwin E. Nelson for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, University 

 of Missouri, 1920. 



University Fellow in the Graduate School, University of Missouri, 

 1916-18. 



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