18 Thirty-ninth Annual Meeting 



unable to. I have to turn for information from one source 

 to anotlier, and, as you will see when you look over the list 

 of papers, I have catalogued, with my comments upon 

 them, and the recommendations I have made, I know you 

 will agree with me that it is a problem of a most serious 

 and engaging nature. 



Now, this cjuestion has been pressing upon us since we last 

 met, but it is not new. h'ish diseases are as old as the hills, and 

 yet fish diseases have not been studied as long as the hills have 

 been under the observation and investigation of scientific 

 men. We are new in the study of iish diseases. We go to 

 Germany for information. The scientific men of Germany 

 take time to study these problems. I do not know whether 

 they are better paid than we are or not ; but at all events 

 they find time. They get the opportunity to study fish 

 diseases and we go to them for such little scraps of informa- 

 tion as we can get. You all know that we do not get very 

 much. \Nq read about lymphosporidium, micrococcus, bac- 

 terium, and bacillus, and we are often inclined to wish that 

 this jangle of words might find its w^ay into the sea and be 

 buried out of sight; yet we cannot afford to feel that way 

 about it because the beginning of things lies in the investi- 

 gation of the actual origin of disease. Treatment comes 

 later on. In American literature on the subject there is little 

 to help us. Dr. Hofer's book, in the German, gives some 

 descriptions and a few lines of suggestions for treatment. 

 There is the problem today ; we know that these diseases 

 occur; the fish are dying before our eyes. The dilTerent 

 states and the United States are losing tens of thousands 

 of dollars annually — perhaps more than that — from this 

 cause ; and our best results are brought to naught. As I 

 say, that is the problem and the living problem before us 

 today. 



I do not know that there is anything else for me to re]iort 

 which would be of much interest to you. I can merely say 

 that work in fish culture has been steadily growing during 

 the past year; the states have increased their output; I 



