THE SCOTTISH MARINE STATION AND ITS WORK. 237 



and smaller cells externally. The hollow of the hemisphere 

 is filled with a fibrous mass, the constituent fibres of which 

 are perpendicular to the cellular layer outside, but cross each 

 other at right angles at the centre. This is succeeded in 

 front by a homogeneous, highly refractive lens, surrounded 

 by a ring similar in structure to the stratified layer, and 

 without this again is a stratum of cells smaller than those 

 mentioned above. The posterior half of the organ is over- 

 laid by a coating of flat, polygonal, red pigment-cells, which 

 seem to be merely a specialised form of the chromatophores, 

 which are scattered in various parts of the body. A con- 

 nection with the nervous system, although it almost certainly 

 exists, has not yet been demonstrated. These luminous 

 bodies may be acted on either by mechanical or chemical 

 stimuli, and it was ascertained that the light proceeds 

 from the innermost part of the stratified cup above described, 

 which appears to possess the property of fluorescence in a 

 remarkable degree. 



A few months ago an adult whale {Balmnoptera rostrata) 

 came ashore in the narrow entrance to the quarry, and was 

 speedily killed by the dwellers in the neighbourhood. It 

 was thereafter towed round to Granton Harbour, hoisted on 

 a railway truck, and thus conveyed within the walls of the 

 Marine Station, where it continued to attract crowds of 

 visitors for some time. An anatomical examination of it was 

 undertaken by Sir William Turner and several assistants. 



The faunistic work was at first the special province of 

 Mr. J. R. Henderson, until his appointment to a Chair of 

 Biology in Madras deprived the station of an accurate and 

 energetic worker. Before his connection with the Granton 

 station Mr. Henderson had acquired a large private collec- 

 tion illustrating the local marine fauna, and by means of the 

 new facilities at his disposal he was able to make many 

 interesting additions to the fauna of the Firth of Forth. 

 He specially devoted himself, however, to the Crustacea ; and 

 his ' Synopsis of British Paguridte ' gives an orderly account 

 of a group which had for long been much neglected, whilst 

 his ' Catalogue of the Decapod and vSchizopod Crustacea of 

 the Firth of Clyde ' includes twenty-one species which have 



