THE STURGEONS AND STURGEON INDUSTRIES. 
271 
eggs were with the thin milt forced out from the abdomen and testes by pressure and 
strokes upon the abdomen with th^^ foot, though there is no reason why good results 
should not be obtained by pressing the milt from fragments of the testes, in the 
same manner as the spermatozoa of the oyster, star fish or of worms are obtained, 
when it is desired to artificially fertilize the ova of these forms. That good results may 
be thus obtained in dealing with the milt and eggs of the sturgeon I have no doubt 
whatever, since the only good lot of eggs which I had the opportunity of successfully 
fertilizing was one batch which were removed from the old fish by cutting open the 
abdomen. 
In practice I should recommend such a method of pseudo-Otesarean section above 
every other, because in attempting to forcibly press out the ova of the sturgeon 
through the genito-urinary passages I believe that they would probably be far more 
liable to injury than if removed from the old fish by slittiug open the belly. 
In getting all the eggs out of the abdominal cavity, I would suggest that the 
abdomen of the live fish be slit open in the median line, and its head raised so that 
the eggs may be run out into large pans to a depth of 2 or 3 iuches, a little water added 
and the live milt put with them and gently stirred about with a feather so as to mix 
the eggs and milt. The very important steps which must immediately follow the 
removal and fertilization of the ova are very important aud may be stated under the 
head ot 
12 HANDLING THE EGGS. 
Not more than twenty minutes should be allowed to elapse after the time the milt 
and eggs are mixed together till they are spread upon cheese-cloth trays, one egg 
deep, or in a single layer. If this is not done immediately the eggs will stick 
together in large masses, causing those at the center of these masses to be asphyxi- 
ated for want of oxygen, which under such circumstances cannot find access to them. 
Other equally serious evils follow from allowing the eggs to adhere together in large 
masses, and the principal one is that if such masses are irregular aud of any size, if 
broken, the eggs aloug the line of fracture of the mass will be broken aud destroyed. 
It is therefore very important that a large number of trays properly constructed be 
at hand upon which to spread the eggs if any extensive hatching operations are to be 
conducted. The eggs will adhere very firmly to the surface of the cheese-cloth in a 
few hours, after which further watchfulness is necessary, in order to keep down any 
fungus which may appear upon the dead eggs, of which there will always be some. 
It may be possible that panes of glass would serve the same purpose as the cheese- 
cloth trays, if a cuyreut of water were allowed to flow very slowly between a superim- 
posed series of glass plates properly disposed in a trough. 
The experience of European investigators, Knoch, in 1871, being amongst the 
earliest, has been the same as that of myself in finding that the ova of the Aei- 
penseridw were adhesive. Knoch worked with the eggs of A. ruthenus, or the sterlet, 
and his account of the adhesiveness of the eggs of that species agrees closely with 
my own. 
I find that the ova are more or less adhesive immediately upon their removal from 
the abdominal cavity, so that if one tips for an instant a vessel to one side in which 
the eggs are contained they at once form a coating of a single layer over the surface 
to which they have been thus momentarily exposed. Upon admixture with water the 
