TAKING THE EGGS. IO9 



since its inception, and to the New York Citizen the 

 credit of first making it public. We were very much 

 surprised that the announcement in the Citizen did 

 not make a deeper impression at the time than it did. 

 Mr. Page was kind enough to send us a marked copy 

 of the paper, and we wrote to him in reply that the 

 statement of M. Vrasski, if true, would wholly revolu- 

 tionize the present method of impregnating eggs ; but 

 no one with whom we corresponded seemed to realize 

 its importance, except Mr. Clift, President of the 

 American Fish Culturists' Association, who wrote to 

 us in very much the same terms that we used to Mr. 

 Page. It was also by his recommendation, we pre- 

 sume, that Mr. Atkins adopted this method in taking 

 his salmon eggs last fall* We are satisfied, however, 

 that the results of the investigations of M. Vrasski 

 are of the utmost importance, and that the facts 

 cannot make too deep an impression on fish breeders. 

 We would advise them never to try the old plan again." 



There are several interesting consequences result- 

 ing from the Russian discovery which seem to be 

 worth mentioning. 



One is that since the spermatozoa of the milt remain 

 alive several days when kept from the air and water, 

 a cross can be effected between fish living at long dis- 

 tances apart, without transporting the fish. For in- 

 stance, a trout breeder in Kansas can bottle up some 

 milt from his fish in a homoeopathic phial, and send it 



* This I have since found to be a mistake. Mr. Atkins be- 

 came acquainted with the Russian method of impregnation through 

 his reading of French writers on the Russian experiments. 



