56 
PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 
duced,—each detail receiving a scientific treatment,—until a scale 
of success has been effected far more complete and satisfactory than 
ever before attained. While under natural conditions but a small 
proportion of the spawn deposited is hatched (the greater mass 
being eagerly devoured by various aquatic tribes), and of the por¬ 
tion hatched but a small percentage escapes to reach maturity, 
under the careful breeding of art fully ninety per cent, of all the 
eggs secured are fertilized and successfully developed. 
Of the practical results of this great national enterprise it is un¬ 
necessary to speak. A dozen varieties of our best food-fishes have 
been disseminated throughout the inland‘waters and the seaboard 
of our country in increasing quantities; transported in the form of 
the young fry, or in that of fertilized eggs to other hatching stations; 
and while an accurate estimate is, perhaps, at present not easily 
attainable, it will hardly be held an exaggeration to say that these 
productions are to be numbered by thousands of millions. Of these, 
many millions (by a most praiseworthy public courtesy) have been 
distributed to foreign countries—to Australia, to Brazil, to Canada, 
to England, to France, to Germany, to Mexico, to The Netherlands, 
to Scotland, and to Switzerland. 
In the great International Fisheries Exhibition at Berlin in 1880 
our national commission was authorized by Congress to participate. 
Professor Baird appointed as his deputy to personally superintend 
this movement Professor Goode, the present Fish Commissioner, 
under whose energetic direction, in a remarkably short space of 
time, the marvellous American exhibit was organized, transported, 
and installed, to the wonder and admiration of every visitor. The 
head of the American Commission was hailed by the President of 
the German Fisheries Association as the “chief fish-culturist in the 
%vorld,” and to him was awarded for the most complete and impos¬ 
ing display of all the details and accessories of his scientific art the 
unique first-honor prize of the exhibition, the gift of the Emperor 
of Germany. 
But time fails'to permit more than a passing glance at other fields 
of activity no less important in which Professor Baird employed his 
remarkable powers of executive management. The Smithsonian 
Institution from its inception had given great encouragement to 
explorations, and its director had zealously labored to enlist, as far 
as practicable, the various expeditions undertaken by the Govern¬ 
ment, in the extension of scientific research. These efforts were lib- 
