SCIENTIFIC AND COMMERCIAL FISH-CULTUKE., 65 



and inserted by Duhamel du Monceau in his General Treatise on 

 Fishes. Jacobi, who practised the art for thirty years, waa not 

 'satisfied with a mere discovery, but at once turned what he had 

 discovered to practical account, and, in the time of Jacobi, great 

 attention was devoted to pisciculture by various gentlemen of 

 scientific eminence. Count Goldstein, a savan of the period, 

 likewise wrote en the subject. The Journal of Haaover also 

 had papers on this art, and an account of Jacobi's proceedings 

 was enrolled in the Memoirs of the Eoyal Academy of Berlin. 

 This discovery of Jacobi was the simple result of keen observa- 

 tion of the natural action of the breeding salmon. Observing 

 that the process of impregnation was entirely an external act, 

 he saw at once that this could be easily imitated by careful 

 manipulation ; so that, by conducting artificial hatching on a 

 large scale, a constant and unfailing supply of fish might readily 

 be obtained. The results arrived at by Jacobi were of vast 

 importance, and obtained not only the recognition of his govern- 

 ment, but also the more solid reward of a pension. 



Some persons dispute the claims of France to the honour of 

 this discovery, asserting that the peasant Kemy had borrowed 

 his idea from the experiments of the late Mr. Shaw of Drumlan- 

 rig, who had by the artificial system undertaken to prove that 

 parrs were the young of the salmon. Mr. Shaw's experiments 

 were very complete and laborious; they extended over a number 

 of years, were reported to the Koyal Society of Scotland, and 

 were brought to a successful conclusion long before the re-dis- 

 covery of the art of pisciculture by Eemy. In my opinion the 

 honours may be thus divided, whether Remy knew of Shaw's 

 experiments ■ or not : I would give to Scotland the honour 'of 

 having re-discovered pisciculture as an adjunct of science, and 

 to France the useful part of having turned the art to commercial 

 account. In regard to what has been already stated here as to 

 the accidental discovery of artificial fish-breeding, I may mention 

 that James Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd, was one of the dis- 

 coverers. Hogg had an observant eye for rural scenes and 

 incidents, and anxiously studied and experimented on fish-life. 

 He took an active share in the parr controversy. Having seen 

 with his own eyes the branded parr assuming the scales of the 

 smolt, he never doubted after that the fact that the parr was 

 the young of the salmon. In Norway, too, an accidental dis- 

 covery of this fish-breeding power was made ; and certainly if 

 salmon-fishing in that country goes on at its present rate culti- 



