OCCASIONAL NOTES. 261 
adhering together as in their natural state, and could be separated from 
each other like threads by the needle. Whether that diseased condition of 
that part of the skin was caused by the state of the muscle immediately 
below it, or by the fungus on its surface, the author of the paper was 
unable to say. Should the fish live long enough, ulceration of the affected 
parts must take place. The disease was located in the muscle of the fish, and 
perhaps commences in the blood, caused either by the food they eat or by 
some deleterious solution in the water which passes through the gills, and 
the unhealthy, decaying fluid or matter, which naturally passes off from 
these bacteria and exudes through the pores of the skin, forms a nidus for 
the germination of the zoospores of the fungus. Owners of aquaria state 
* that, previous to the growth of the fungus on a fish, it exhibits signs of 
indisposition. Dr. Carpenter, writing of Fungi, says, “ There are various 
diseased conditions of the human skin and mucous membranes in which 
there is a combination of fungoid vegetation and morbid growth of the animal 
tissues, such as Tinea favosa;” and that ‘it is a disputed point whether 
the morbid condition or the fungus is the disease.” ‘lhe first is rather 
consistent with general analogy, and especially with what is known of the 
conditions under which the various kinds of fungoid “ blights” develop 
themselves in or upon growing plants. Unless there is a predisposing 
cause, fish will not contract the fungoid part of the disease; they must have 
a disease or decay in their body on the products of which the fungus 
germinates and grows. He believed that salt is not very favourable to the 
growth of S. ferax; but, as far as the bacteria in the muscle is concerned, 
no washing by any solution will affect it. He had cut sections of muscle 
containing them, and placed one in a saturated solution of salt and one in 
clean water, and kept them for several days. Those in the salt solution 
were as lively at the end of the period as when taken from the fish; in fact, 
they did not die until they were placed in a preservative fluid containing 
arsenic. If this disease is cured by the return of the fish to the sea, it 
must be ascribed to the food they get there and the general invigorating 
influences, and not to the fact of their being washed externally by sea or 
salt water. He had no faith in putting salt, acetic acid, or any other 
chemical in the water, believing that by the time the diseased fish were 
expected to be cured, they and all other fish in the river would be killed. 
He was of opinion that the cause must be looked for in the water, by 
examining, chemically, microscopically, and experimentally, quantities of 
water taken from the river in the autumn when it is very small, after a long 
absence of rain. Mr. Robert Service said it seemed to be a rule, almost 
without exception, that before a race of animals or plants is attacked by any 
epidemic of fungoid or other origin, they must have become predisposed to 
such attack by a weakened constitution or actual disease. Mr. Rutherford’s 
discovery of Lacteria in countless myriads in the flesh of Salmon attacked 
