vi. L.M.B.C. REPOET IV. 



and planned the building. The increased size of the 

 present volume may be taken as some measure of the 

 increased, and always increasing, facilities for work 

 afforded by the Port Erin Biological Station. 



It ought to be noticed that although the primary objects 

 of the Committee w^ere originally faunistic and specio- 

 graphic, yet observations on habits and life-histories, and 

 bionomics in general, have not been neglected ; and now 

 some of our papers, such as Mr. Chadwick's on the 

 Vascular Systems of the Starfishes, and Mr. Clubb's on 

 the Cerata of Nudibranchs, are coming to deal with purely 

 structural and morphological questions. 



The other Keports in this volume deal, some of them — 

 such as Mr. Gamble's on Turbellaria, Mr. Beaumont's on 

 Nemertea, and Mr. Browne's on Medusae — with fresh 

 groups of animals which had not been adequately discussed 

 in the previous volumes ; while others, such as Mr. 

 Thompson's and Mr. Walker's reports, are welcome 

 revisions of these authors' own previous work on the 

 Crustacea. Dr. Hanitsch has furnished us with a paper 

 on the Classification and Nomenclature of British Sponges, 

 which it may be said does not come strictly within the 

 scope of the L.M.B.C. Eeports. Still the subject matter 

 is of such importance to anyone working systematically at 

 our sponge fauna, and the treatment seems so well adapted 

 to render the lists an indispensable working addition to 

 Bowerbank's Monograph, that I had no hesitation in 

 asking Dr. Hanitsch to allow the paper to be included in 

 our series of reports upon the Fauna of Liverpool Bay. 



There is no need to dwell upon the large number of 

 species now recorded, and the additions that have been 

 made by our explorations Ijotli to the British fauna and to 

 science; such results, though very necessary, are no longer 

 the sole, perhaps not even the chief objects which the 



