FOREST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSIONER. 217. 



bass were encased in a mass of cestodes forming a continuous sheath or 

 membrane around certain of the organs, but without destroying the vitality 

 of the fish. It was seen at a glance that the parasite represented the larva 

 of a flat worm, but as the Commission has no helminthologist on its staff, 

 the fish was forwarded to Prof. Edwin Linton, Washington and Jefferson 

 College. Washington, Pa., the professor being recognized as one of the 

 greatest living authorities on internal parasites of fishes. Prof. Linton 

 identified the larva as a species of tapeworm (Taenia sp.). Since the receipt 

 of the specimen referred to, other examples have been forwarded to the 

 office of Forest and Stream for identification, and were found to contain the 

 same parasite. 



It is marvelous to note the extensive damage caused to the viscera of 

 the bass by the mass of cestodes encircling them without apparently 

 destroying the vigor and game qualities of the fish. The bass is probably 

 only an intermediary host of this parasite. It is to be remembered that 

 this particular species of tapeworm may never find in the alimentary tract 

 of man its final resting place. The history of these worms is by no means 

 worked out, and it is unnecessary to suffer alarm because of a probable 

 injury which may never materialize. It may be that the final host of the 

 tapeworm affecting the black bass is some species of water bird, and if so a 

 practical deduction from the suggestion would be the desirability of keeping 

 water birds off the lake at all seasons of the year. Whether or not this can 

 be done remains to be determined by others. There is not the slightest 

 doubt that water birds are not desirable tenants of trout lakes, and every 

 trout culturist will use his utmost endeavors at least to frighten them away, 

 if nothing more, because of the relation of the water birds to the final 

 development of certain internal parasites. 



Diseases 



Numerous losses of fish under cultivation arc due to diseases of various 

 kinds, and especially to diseases of bacterial origin. If the injurious forms 

 of low plant growth which infest the waters could be removed, the work of 

 the fish culturist would be greatly simplified and extended. Such disorders 

 as the ulcer disease of the brown trout, the skin disease of brook trout and 



