246 AMERICAN FISH CULTURE. 



indicated by its title, the results of experiments, conducted 

 for about thirty years, on the artificial fecundation of the 

 salmon and trout, and this memoir, in its entirety or in ab- 

 stracts, was published in Berlin and Paris, and the discovery 

 directly communicated to several of the prominent natural- 

 ists of the day, especially Buffon. Jacobi even received 

 from the English government a pension, in appreciation 

 of the importance of his discovery. Artificial fecundation, 

 soon afterwards practised on a larger scale at Noterlem, 

 also in the kingdom of Hanover, yielded favorable results. 

 Jacobi having recognised the nature of the sexual relations 

 of the fishes, and that the female, when spawning, was fol- 

 lowed by the male, who dropped his milt over the ova of his 

 companion, and thus fertilized them, inferred that nature 

 may be imitated and assisted by man. He therefore took a 

 clean wooden bucket or shallow tub, and emptied into it a 

 pint of clear water. Taking then a female salmon whose ova 

 were mature, he expressed them by a gentle pressure of the 

 hand down the abdomen, and treated a male fish in the 

 same manner, discharging his milt over the ova. 



The ova, thus fertilized, were then placed in a box made 

 for the purpose, and which is thus described by Jacobi, as 

 translated by Fry : — 



" The box may be constructed of any suitable size : for 

 example, eleven feet long, a foot and a half wide, and six 

 inches high. At one extremity should be left an opening 

 six inches square, covered by a grating of iron or brass 

 wire, the wires not being more than four lines apart. At 

 the other extremity, on the side of the box, should be made 

 a similar opening, six inches wide by four inches high, 

 similarly grated. This one will serve for the escape of the 

 water, the other for its entrance, and the grating will pre- 

 vent water-rats or any destructive insects from reaching the 

 eggs. The top of the box should be closely shut for the 



