164 TRANSACTIONS ' iSgg-'oo 



A French monk, Doni Pinclion, has been credited with first 

 accompHshing, in the fifteenth century, the artificial fecundation 

 of trout eggs; but competent authorities are of opinion that he 

 simply collected naturally impregnated eggs. It was not until 

 1747 that a Westphahan officer, Lieut. Ludwig Jacobi experi- 

 mented with the eggs of fishes, by actually mingling the milt and 

 eggs, and carrying out fish-culture from the fecundation of the 

 ova to somewhat advanced stages of the liberated fry or young 

 brood. He reared trout until they were six months old, and 

 founded modern fish-culture in the true sense of that term. The 

 importance of his work was fully recognized, for his memoir was 

 printed in Paris in 1770, and King George the Third, granted 

 him a life pension in the following year. Karl Lund, in Sweden, 

 followed close in the wake of Jacobi. In Italy, Rusconi (either in 

 1834 or 1835), and in Switzerland, Agassiz and Vogt, about 1836, 

 minutely investigated the early stages of the eggs and young of 

 fishes, while John Shaw, in the year of the Queen's Coronation, 

 Knox, Young, Boccius, and others, from 1840 to 1850, added 

 considerably to our knowledge of the larval development of the 

 salmon and other species of fish. Remy and Gehin, two French 

 fishermen of La Bresse, appear to have practised fish culture in 

 France in 1842, and the subject was brought to the attention of 

 the public by the notable treatises of de Quatrefages and of 

 Coste, the latter organizing in 1850, a large fish-breeding 

 establishment wdth the authority of the Minister of Agriculture. 

 France has ever since maintained a high place in the world of 

 aquaculture. 



It was not until 1853, so far as I can ascertain, that any 

 attempt was made upon this continent to artificially breed fishes. 

 Dr. Theodatus Garhck of Cleveland, Ohio, was the pioneer. He 

 obtained parent brook-trout in Canada, taking them across from 

 Port Stanley in Ontario, to his establishment in Ohio. He was 

 an enthusiast, and his exhibits of young fish, hatched from 

 Canadian trout-eggs, were a feature for many years at Agricul- 

 tural Exhibitions in the various States bordering on the great 

 lakes. Canada soon followed suit. The initial attempts were, of 

 course, largely experimental. The late Mr. Samuel Wilmot 

 claimed to have originated fish-culture in Canada ; but I find 

 the claim to be disputed, and with justification, by a venerable 



