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Inspection of the Laboratory. 



The Laboratory was visited and inspected on June 26th and 27th 

 by a Committee appointed by the Council for that purpose, and the 

 following report was submitted to the Council at the meeting held on 

 June 29th:— 



"The Committee, consisting of the President and Mr. Beddard, 

 arrived in Plymouth on Saturday, June 26th. They visited the 

 laboratories, engine-rooms, tank-room, library, and museum on both 

 Saturday and Sunday. By the President's invitation, they were joined 

 at Plymouth by Mr. John Enys, of Enys, near Falmouth, a member 

 of the Association. 



" The Committee report in the first place that the satisfactory 

 standard of general efficiency noted last year has been fully maintained. 

 The place is in excellent condition, clean and orderly, and the servants 

 are well in hand. 



" The large laboratory has been provided with a new flat tank, eight 

 feet by five feet and eight inches deep, by aid of which Mr. Garstang 

 has been carrying on some observations on the habits of Brachyurous 

 Crustacea. The sea-water supplied to the laboratory is still kept 

 distinct from the general circulation in the show tanks, and is never 

 returned to the laboratory tanks after it has passed through them. 

 We are of opinion that this is the only satisfactory system for main- 

 taining marine organisms in a really healthy condition in confinement, 

 the whole theory of ' circulation ' being illusory and in practice 

 disastrous. 



" The lecture-room is in good order, and has proved to be very useful 

 and well fitted for its purpose. 



" The collection of local types in the museum has progressed. 

 Mr. Holt has named and rearranged the collection of fishes, and the 

 Echinoderms and Polyzoa have been completed. 



" Smith continues, under Mr. Allen's direction, to carry out the 

 preservation and storage of specimens for sale according to the best 

 methods. There is a marked improvement in this matter as compared 

 with the period preceding 1896. 



"The library is in good order. A number of books have been bound, 



