Conditions of existence are of importance only in so far as they affect the life and death processes of organisms. The present 1 The lower part of Pettibone Creek has been destroyed by the United States Naval School, otherwise the table would include the records for a point 5 and perhaps a point 6, but probably not 7.
For several years an interesting trematode has been under observation in the laboratory here. It occurs in various species of turtles, and was first discovered in some material shipped in from the south for class work. Peculiar importance attaches to the fact that it is a species inhabiting the circulatory system, and in fact it shows a relationship to the blood-inhabiting flukes of man which has become more clearly evident as the observations have accumulated. Since the material is easily obtained, it will afford perhaps the best opportunity available in this country for the laboratory study of forms adapted to this peculiar environment, so that, despite the incompleteness of the observations, the publication of this note is justified. It is further called for by the fact that several others, who had their attention called to this species, plan to give it a more detailed study than I can make at the present time, and will be glad to have a record of the facts thus far determined in order to utilize them as a basis for further study.For this very unique species I propose the name Proparorchis artericola gen. et spec. nov.The parasite has been found in several distinct species of turtle from widely separate localities. Thus, according to records of the collection here, it has been met with in Pseudemys elegans from Havana, Illinois, in Malacoclemmys leseuerii from Newton, Texas, in Pseudemys scripta from Raleigh, N. C., and in Chrysemys marginata from Fairport, Iowa. OBSERVATIONS ON LIVING MATERIALThe general distribution of the parasite in the body of the host is well illustrated by the record of one very careful examination made in May, 1915. The specimen was Pseudemys scripta. The circulatory system was first studied and the examination of a large quantity of blood gave only negative results. After ligating veins and arteries, the heart was removed and four flukes found in it. Several large veins were taken out and teased, but no flukes obtained. When, however, the large arteries were subjected to similar treatment, three flukes were taken; one was found plugging up the end of an artery. Both lungs were teased out; one yielded three flukes, the other none. Negative results came from similar handling of the liver.
Man has always held the salmon in high esteem as a game fish and for the superior quality of its flesh for food. From the days when Roman Emperors reserved the salmon streams of Brittany for private use, and the wealth of Rome was spent lavishly to serve these fish at great banquets, an unbroken historic record awards to the Atlantic salmon the rank of chief among all fishes. Under the constant pressure of centuries its members have dwindled to a mere fraction of their former numbers, and today a few fish in the streams of northern North America and Europe represent the last remnant of the multitudes that swarmed in all the rivers from the Connecticut on the west to the Bay of Biscay on the east of the Atlantic.The earliest voyagers along the Pacific shores of North America marveled at the vast hordes of salmon that there blocked the streams. in their annual drive for the spawning grounds. Even today the greatly reduced and, alas, still rapidly diminishing numbers serve to maintain a commercial fishery that supplies the trade of the world and, measured by either quantity or value, ranks among the great industries of this continent. The conservation of such a resource rightly demands the careful consideration of scientific men while at the same time the striking life history of the Pacific salmon appeals most strongly to the scientific imagination as a biological problem of the highest interest.
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