of Edinburgh , Session 1877 - 78 . 
727 
be accounted for by bakeries or breweries in Carlisle, whose refuse 
might have got into the river. 
My letter was published by Dr Hair in the Carlisle Journal of 
March 29th, and in the Field newspaper of March 30th, and as 
worded it might have been inferred that I regarded the presence of 
bakeries and breweries as the cause of the disease. This was of 
course not intended. On 12th April I received two salmon and a 
trout from J. Dunne, Esq., chief constable of Cumberland and West- 
moreland, all of them in a diseased condition. Mr Dunne requested 
me to make an examination of those fish, and hoped, on public 
grounds, that I might be able to discover the true nature and cause 
of the disease. 
As a result of my examination of those fish I sent a preliminary 
report to Mr Dunne. This report was forwarded to the Fishery 
Inspectors, and was considered of so much importance that it was 
published in the Times and many of the provincial and local 
newspapers. Sir Robert Christison had also very kindly supplied 
me with a number of specimens from the river Nith, all of them 
affected with this disease. An examination of these has confirmed 
me in the opinion expressed in the report above referred to. All 
these fish had the disease in an advanced stage, being more or less 
affected about the head, chin, branchiostegal rays, and fins in every 
instance. One salmon had rubbed the chin till the lower jaw had 
nearly separated at the symphysis, the skin was rubbed off the 
branchiostegal rays, and the rays broken ; a trout had the upper 
left jaw bare of skin, the bone worn and hanging loosely attached 
to the cheek, the pectoral fin of the left side in rags, and the rays 
worn to stumps. 
Another salmon had the skin rubbed off the nose and crown, and 
the matted fungus covered the bare parts; the dorsal fin was quite 
destroyed, the strong anterior rays being reduced to stumps of half 
an inch in length, and the remains of the fin bare, bleached, and 
without membrane. Beneath the dorsal fin on each side were 
spaces extending 3 inches forward towards the head, and 2J inches 
backwards toward the tail, thickly covered with the fungus. 
Besides these there were other spaces on the sides of the fish from 1 
inch to 2 inches in diameter, all covered by the fungus, which gave 
the fish a spotted appearance. 
