THIRTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 19g 
nants of the old hyphe, grew with wonderful rapidity. At any 
rate I succeeded in destroying the fungus only on those animals 
which were not badly wounded. The rest died. 
In the spring of 1877, while engaged in studying the embry- 
ology of the smelt at New Brunswick, N. J., under the auspices 
of the Maryland Fish Commission, I found that one of the most 
serious drawbacks in the manipulation of the jars in which the 
eggs were placed, was the collection and growth of the saprolegnia 
upon the trays and upon the eggs, especially whenever the eggs 
were much massed together, as they often were in clusters of the 
size of a large walnut or larger. Withthe arrangements which 
we then had, we could not try the effect of salt upon this growth 
of fungus, but in my report to the Commission I expressed my 
opinion in favor of testing the salt-water bath, as soon as ar- 
rangements for its use could be made. 
An opportunity to test this method with the smelt eggs did 
not occur until this spring, when in talking with Mr. Ricardo, 
who was then engaged in manipulating smelt spawn upon the 
Hackensack, I suggested that he should try the effect of immers- 
ing the small eggs in strong salt water, particularly such of 
them as had any fungus attached to them. The method employ- 
ed by Mr. Ricardo in attaching the smelt spawn, which is 
similar to that employed by Mr. C. G. Atkins in Maine, some 
years ago, that is by taking blades of sedge or water grass and 
dipping them into the pans of milted spawn, prevents to a great 
extent, if not entirely, the massing together of the eggs, since 
the rough surface of the blades allow only a single layer at most 
to adhere tothe surface; the result is a pretty even distribution of 
the eggs over the blades, and not much change for the attach- 
ment of the fungus, except on the dead eggs and the dead por- 
tions of the grass. Still there always is a greater or less amount 
of fungus present, and vary much in proportion to the greater 
or less flow of water over the eggs. 
Acting upon my suggestion, Mr. Ricardo prepared some salt 
water, strong enough, as he said “to bear up a potato,” and placed 
some of the egg-bearing grass blades in it. He took those blades 
which had considerable fungus upon them, and after leaving the 
blades in the water for fifteen or twenty minutes, he took 
