THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH. 41 



before the Society of Emulation of Vosges, and the 

 granting by that society of a medal to these two 

 fishermen, it remained buried in their archives ; for it 

 was only in 1848 that the Academy of Sciences was 

 apprised of the claim of the fisherman of Bresse. 

 This claim appeared in consequence of a lecture in 

 which 'Mr. de Quatrefages, without knowing of the 

 researches of Mr. Eemy, called the attention of agri- 

 culturists to the fact, that science furnished them 

 a means, discovered a century since, of re-populating 

 their streams, as an organized trade in Germany and 

 experiments in England had proved. 



At this period, I had already instituted experi- 

 ments on the domestication of fish, of which my works 

 on raising eels, and on the nest-building of the Epi- 

 noche, are fragments — experiments which I have con- 

 tinued at the College of France, where, as professor 

 of comparative Embryogeny for ten years past, I have 

 been obliged, in elucidating to my class the pheno- 

 mena of conception, to make them observe the ac- 

 tual processes of nature by the aid of the microscope, 

 and to exhibit to them the experiment of artificial 

 fecundation. The question of the application of this 

 process entered naturally into the habitual course of 

 my studies, and it seemed to me I was giving effec- 

 tual aid to the organization of a new branch of 

 industry by devoting my laboratory to it. I had 

 in this no idea of setting up a discoverer's claim, 

 or doing aught else than extending to the discovery 

 a benevolent patronage. My life belongs to the new 



