48 Life and Love. 



a condition of longer or shorter duration; where 

 it is of long duration it produces as a rule a fatal 

 effect. The creature undergoing such loss and 

 not repairing it by added nutriment cannot regain 

 its strength, and its life terminates. 



A terrific exhaustion accompanies the reproduc- 

 tive act in our fishes. After the loss of a million or 

 more eggs, accompanied by diminished vitality in 

 all the cells, there is not much left of a cod ! Often 

 the male salmon does not even survive the phenom- 

 enal changes which come over him at that period. 

 These changes are often accompanied by long- 

 suspended nutrition. He loses his appetite, and 

 during the period of greatest reproductive activity, 

 when the most powerful demand is made upon his 

 resources, eats little or nothing, thus failing to 

 make good the loss. He is so brimful of activity 

 in certain parts that unusual growths result; his 

 teeth get long, his mouth grows long and hooked, 

 so that sometimes he cannot even close it; his 

 scales disappear, sunk in the spongy skin which 

 grows up about them, his color changes from 

 silvery to rosy red, or a darker red, or even to a 

 blackish color, according to his variety; and with 

 these physical changes comes a no less marked 

 emotional activity, — he grows fierce and irritable, 

 and indulges in destructive combats with his 

 fellows. 



These strange growths and changes, as has been 

 noticed, take place at the expense of the material 



