ea 
REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 169 
- favorable conditions. A few papers bearing upon the former group 
have appeared in the publications of the Fish Commission and U. 5. 
National Museum from time to time. In 1884 Prof. Edwin Linton, 
of Washington and Jefferson College, began an exhaustive inquiry 
respecting the entozoan worm parasites of fishes, which has been con- 
tinued down to date. Three general papers on this subject have been 
printed in the annual reports of the Commission for 1886, 1887, and 
1888, and a special account of a parasite of the tiger shark in the last- 
mentioned report. The protozoan parasites occurring on Cyprinodon 
in the Vineyard Sound region, and on eyprinoid fishes in Ohio, have 
also been discussed by Prof. Linton in the Fish Commission Bulletin 
for 1889. The entozoan parasites of the trout collected by Dr. Jordan 
in the Yellowstone Park, in 1890, were referred to Prof. Linton for in- 
vestigation, and the following year he accompanied Prof. S. A. Forbes 
on an expedition to the same region, where he was able to study the 
same forms in a fresh condition and to trace their development through 
the pelican. An account of his researches in respect to this subject 
will be found under the heading of the Yellowstone National Park. 
The attention of the Commission has been called to several instances 
where young trout kept in confinement have become blind. Specimens 
in this condition were carefully examined by Prof. Linton, but no trace 
of parasitism was discovered. The eyes were congested and there ap- 
peared to be an unusual amount of pigment in the choroid coat and in 
the vicinity of the crystalline lens. It seems probable, therefore, that 
the trouble arose from some external conditions surrounding the fish, 
and which affected only the eyes, as the specimens were otherwise in 
good condition. 
COLLECTIONS, PREPARATION OF REPORTS, ETC. 
The laboratory established at the Central Station in Washington at 
the close of the fiscal year 1889 has, up to the present time, met the 
principal requirements of the work of this division, but it is rapidly 
becoming overcrowded and furiishes insufficient accommodations for 
taking proper care of specimens obtained in the investigations now in 
progress. Very large collections have been received during the past 
two years, resulting mainly from the explorations of the steamer Alba- 
tross in the North Pacific Ocean and in Bering Sea, from the oyster 
surveys along the Atlantic coast, and from the inquiries respecting 
the lakes and rivers. While it is not proposed to retain permanently 
in the Fish Commission building more than a type or working series 
of the specimens thus obtained, yet a considerable time must elapse 
before any extensive collection can be fully studied and the reports 
bearing upon it prepared for printing, and ample storage and working 
space is therefore required for the accommodation of this branch of 
research. 
The study of the fishes has progressed rapidly under the care of Dr. 
Tarleton H. Bean, the ichthyologist of the Commission, and through 
