32 THE NEW ART OP BKEEDING FISH. 



cles, and disappears after having for a moment 

 troubled the transparent water. 



Scientific observation had it seems then estabhsh- 

 cd, that the contact of the egg and the milt was an 

 external phenomenon realized between two products of 

 parental organism, expelled from that organism and 

 combining exteriorly to it. 



From this observation of what happens nonnally 

 in nature to the idea of its artificial imitation, was 

 only a step, and this was plain to the admirable sa- 

 gacity of the author of the memoir published by the 

 Count de Goldstein. He thus explains it : " If this 

 description of natural propagation by trout and sal- 

 mon be compared with the artificial processes we 

 have deduced therefrom, we flatter ourselves that in 

 our method will be recognized all the principles in- 

 dicated as essential to nature." * 



According to his description, after having emp- 

 tied into a vessel a pint of clear water, he seized a 

 female whose eggs were at maturity, and by a slight 

 pressure expressed them into the vessel. 



Then he took a male and in like manner expressed 

 into the vessel enough of his milt to give a milky 

 hue to the water in imitation of nature's process, and 

 thus he practised artificial fecundation. 



" A pint of very clear water," he says, " is poured 

 into a nice clean vessel, such as a wooden bucket or 

 shallow tub ; a female salmon is then taken by the 



' Duhamel, op. cit, 2d part^ p. 842. 



