SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
362 
Remv is a great fiict for humanity parallel with the intro- 
duction into France of tlie potato,” (p. 22.) Again : — 
“Forever will the discovery ofGEUiv &/ Ramy he a fruit- 
ful fict for humanity, one of the greatest discoveries of 
ancient or modern times ; a discovery which we place even 
above that of LEVKniicn,” cScc., (p. 23). d’his is rather ex- 
travagant praise. We aredisposed to admit that the two 
fishermen had* re-discovered a long known aiid long 
and successfully practiced series of facts, which without 
their knowledge, had been published in every minute dc- 
Uul, in four different languages, nearly a hundred years 
before — we are disposed also to admit that their plain 
statements of facts induced the French government to en- 
courage the process of stocking their rivers with Salmon ; 
we moreover acknowledge the justice and propriety of the 
reward bestowed on the fishermen, viz : an annual pension 
of 1,‘200 (rancs to Remy and 500 francs to Gehin, with 10 
francs a day for travelling expenses and a tobacco factory 
to each. All this was generous and laudable, but the 
simpletons, both in France and New York, who sneered 
at men of science for their ignorance and “fogyism,” in 
suffering the two illiterate fishermen to carry off the palm 
of what they term “one of the grandest discoveries of 
ancient or modern times,” which “it took 0,000 years to 
find” ought to have known what the report of ^NIilne Ed- 
wards, will,at least in part, inform them, that tlie discovery 
liad long been made by a man of science in Germany, 
after a long series of experiments, which eventuated in the 
most perfect success. Inasmuch as many of the details 
are contained in the work above referred to, we will only 
mention a few facts and refer to the dates. 
Jacobi, an eminent German naturalist, after having been 
engaged thirty years in experiments on Artificial Fish 
Breeding communicated his discovery to Fourkroy in 
1758. His communication was written in the German 
language. A Latin translation was furnished by Count 
de Goldstein. Its title was “An Essay on the Artificial 
Fecundation of Fishes Eggs, and on the Employment of 
the process of Stocking Rivers and Ponds.” In 1703 full 
details were published in the Journal de Hamvre, The 
whole process of Jacobi was carried on near Nortalem, in 
the Kingdom of Havover. He not only stocked the river 
with salmon by his artificial process, but rendered them an 
object of considerable commerce. England, in order to 
reward his services, granted him a pension, (See Soiree’s 
Helvetiennes, Amsterdam, 1771 , p. If)'.).) An abridged 
account was published at Berlin in 1701. The French 
version was published by order of the Academy of Sciences 
in France, in 1773. 
The detads of the process of .Jacobi are as full, in every 
particular, as these now published in France as the results 
of the discoveries of of Remy & Gehin. This is now f«lly 
admitted by the scientific men of France ; indeed, they 
have re-published Jacobi’s experiments, and the essential 
points are faithfully given in the little work before us, as 
translated by M. Coste, (pp. 29 — 40.) 
But this is not all. England is ahead of France in this 
whole matter of artificial fish breeding. Yarrall’s admir- 
able work, in 2 volumes, on the History of the British 
Fishes, was published in London in 1830. In his Pre- 
face (vol. Jst, p. 24) he refers to the Essay of Dr. Walker, 
of Edinburg, on the Natui-al History of the Salmon, who 
had quoted the experiments of Jacobi, and had found that 
“this artificial fecundation can be accomplished with the 
roe and melt of fishes which have been dead two and 
even three days.” In 1830, Shaw commenced his experi- 
ments on artificial Salmon breeding in Great Britain after 
the process described by Jacobi, and was perfectly suc- 
cessful. In 1838 we happened to be in London and at- 
tended the meetings of the Zoological Society, of which we 
were a corresponding member. The whole subject which 
had awakened interest in consequence of the decline of 
salmon in most of their rivers, was there discussed and 
regularly published in their proceedings. The whole 
process of artificial fish breeding was fully understood and 
familiarly spoken of as facts well known to men of science 
and successfully practiced, not only in tianover, but in 
Great Br.tain. Our own experiments on other species in 
America excited no surprise. The simple knowledge of 
the fact, that the eggs of the fish become fertilized by the 
effusion of the milky substance ofthe male, which may be 
seen in clear water any Hay in spring, on the breeding 
places of our perch and other species, will lead to all the 
results that have followed. The mode pursued by Jacobi, 
by the English naturalists, and the French fishermen, 
were precisely the same. A male and a female salmon 
were taken whilst the latter was in the act of spawning. 
The roe was, by a pressure on the abdomen, expelled 
from the female and the milky substance, called melt, from 
the male in the same manner. These eggs, now impreg- 
nated by this artificral process, were carried to a pool or 
basin, where, in the course of from 50 to 110 days, the 
young fry appeared. The eggs of fishes may be assimi- 
lated to the seeds of plants and may, therefore, be trans- 
ported to long distances. If placed in their natural element, 
under favorable circumstances, they will produce young, as 
the seeds of a plant will germinate and grow. jMr. Gehin 
only commenced his investigations in 1842, and it was not 
until 1818 that the Academy of Science was apprised of 
the claims of the fishermen of Bresse. Long before that, 
the scientific men of England had been stocking their 
rivers with Salmon and Salmon Trout. Mr. Boccius, in 
1841, introduced, by this process, 120,000 into the streams 
near Uxbridge, and on the following year 2,000,000 of 
Trout in the streams in the county of Hertford, and pub- 
lished a book on his method of stocking streams. 
Thus, it appears that the diminution of Salmon from 
year to year in the waters of England and France awak- 
ened a desire to restore this constantly increasing loss. 
England sought to do this by the lights which the science 
of Germany had afforded and placed, in full detail, into 
her hands. The French fishermen, we charitably believe, 
re-discovered it by the study of simple nature, to which 
the philosopher, us well as the peasant, must resort in the 
investigation of truth ; as far as this, they also were men 
of science. France would have obtained her information 
in a few months without the aid of the fishermen, and it is 
very surprising that, if they had forgotten what their learn- 
ed Academy had published, in regard to this discovery in 
Germany, they should so long have been ignorant of the 
published account of what had been done and was doing 
across the channel. The discovery of Jacobi has, no 
doubt, been reproduced in many instances in every coun- 
try without the slightest knowledge of Jacobi or his writ- 
ings. Whilst, therefore, we award due praise to the fisher- 
men, let us not be unmindful of the previous labors of the 
scientific men of Germany and England. 
The next important inquiry that presents itself, is, how 
far can this method ofartificial fish breeding be applied to 
those fishes of the seas, that are articles of commerce, in 
the capturing of which thousands of hardy seamen are 
employed, and whose exposed and often perilous labors, 
supply food for millions of our race I 
A mere glance at the habits of these species of fish will 
convince us that, with a very few exceptions, no great ad- 
vantage can be derived from this discovery in the breeding 
and transplanting of the finny tribes. They, in their pro- 
duction, must be left to the operation of Nature’s own 
laws, and the fishermen must pursue and capture them on 
their own watery domains. We. confess, however, that 
we would be pleased to hear of experiments made to intro- 
duce into the waters of our Southern sea coast the spawn 
of the Turbot and the Sole from English seas, and a few 
superior fishes from the Mediterranean coast. The fishes 
