of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



79 



is noticeable not only on the crown of the head but to some extent in 

 the occipital region behind the head, it also extends downwards to the 

 operculum, in which region, I am assured, it first appears. It is not 

 noticeable in front of the eye, which organ appears to be normal and 

 functional. The colour was a dead white, slightly clouded here and 

 there with a bluish tint. Pigment remains in the dorsal region only at 

 the end of the snout and in a patchy manner above the eyes. There is 

 a distinct depression in the region of the cranial cavity above the brain. 

 The fish was otherwise healthy and in splendid condition, with pyloric 

 appendages loaded with fat ; indeed, it may be stated that the disease 

 does not appear to reduce the plump condition of the fish affected. In 

 another specimen received, killed on 24th July, and showing the disease 

 in a more advanced state, no very marked difference to that seen in the 

 figure is noticeable on the crown of the head, but the white area above 

 the muscular tissue just beyond the head shows the surface broken and 

 ulcerated in three places. The spreading of this condition over the cir- 

 cumscribed area ultimately seems to give rise to the prevailing red colour 

 seen in the worst specimens. On lifting the specimen killed on 24th 

 July from the box in which the fish came, the pupil or Jens 'dropped out 

 from one of the eyes. The specimen was certainly not very fresh, having 

 been sent during the hottest of the summer and having taken three days 

 to reach Edinburgh from Grimersta Lodge. Still this could not, I con- 

 sider, account for the ease with which the lens of the eye dropped out. In 

 no specimen which I have seen or of which I have heard has the fish 

 been affected except in the region of the brain and medulla. 



W. L. C ALDER WOOD. 



