136 APPENDIX. 



supposed I was laboring under, in believing that 

 I was the first, in this country, to breed fish 

 from artificially impregnated eggs, and desired 

 an early response. 



The reason why I did not reply at an earlier 

 period, is that I did not se.e the December and 

 January No's., of the Cultivator, until to day, and 

 shall therefore, for the present, confine myself 

 to a few brief strictures, on Dr. Bachman's paper. 

 It matters but little who was the first in this 

 country, to breed fish artificially, and I am not 

 disposed to have a controversy with any person, be 

 he clergyman or layman, for all the credit there 

 is in being the first successful experimentor, in 

 artificial fish culture, in this country. 



I may, however, be permitted with a good 

 many others, to express my surprise, that Dr. 

 Bachman's experiments and discoveries, never 

 found their way before the public, until after 

 the lapse of full half a century after they were 

 made. I trust, I shall be pardoned for saying, 

 that I have very little confidence in the genuine- 

 ness of all claims for discoveries, made over a 

 half a century since, and for the first time giv- 

 en to the public last fall, particularly when they 

 are of such vast importance as Dr. Bachman 

 claims this to be, and it is very strange, that it 

 did not appear to be of more consequence to the 



