Anniversary Address. 4fS7 



eats out its life. For some time it was a moot point whether 

 this fatal fungus was the effect or the cause of the disease. 

 The latest observations by scientific experts show that fish 

 do not necessarily fall into a morbid state before they are 

 attacked ; that perfectly healthy fish may be affected; and 

 moreover, that abrasions of the skin are not necessary, as 

 was thought to ensure germination of the spores, though they 

 no doubt facilitate that operation. 



It is very satisfactory to know that the Tweed Commis- 

 sioners, at their annual meeting on the 1st Sept., 1884, voted 

 the sum of £200 " to assist in a comprehensive and exhaust- 

 ive enquiry into the origin, nature, development, and 

 treatment of the Fungoid Disease. " The report shows that 

 during the last five years, the enormous number of 37,969 

 diseased fish, salmon, grilse, and sea-trout, were taken out of 

 the river. But the chairman was of opinion that on account 

 of the improbability of getting hold of, and withdrawing all 

 the fish that were dead and diseased, the figures which I 

 have quoted represent only one fourth or one fifth of the 

 real number destroyed. Taking them as one fourth only, 

 we find that the startling total of 151,876 Tweed fish have 

 been lost to commerce, and to the nation as food, during the 

 last five years, and the tables show that the majority of those 

 fish were salmon. 



The diseased fish which were removed from the river were 

 buried. Buried where ? Most, if not all of them, in or near 

 the banks of the river it is certain. 



Now what are the proved characteristics of the spores of 

 Saprolegnia, and of Fungi of the same character ? They are 

 number and vitality. They exist in countless myriads, and 

 are extrem^ely tenacious of life. Can any one doubt, then, 

 that from these thousands of buried diseased fish, an in- 

 numerable number of spores were carried back into the river 

 by the action of rain percolating through the earth, by 

 drains and streams, by the waters of the river itself occasion- 

 ally overflowing the places of sepulture ; and that instead of 

 destroying the germs of this alarming epidemic, or of re- 

 moving them out of harm's way, the course which has hQea 



