XVili DIRECTOR'S REPORT.—NO. II. 
the chemistry of sea water on the one hand, and the influence of 
bacteria upon its composition on the other, which can only be 
properly studied in a well-fitted marine biological laboratory. Even 
the purely chemical side of this subject has so far hardly been 
touched upon, and next to nothing is known of the quantity and 
behaviour of the combined nitrogen in different sea waters. 
What I wish to make clear is that the Laboratory is not devoted 
exclusively to the use of zoologists, and that the means for the pur- 
suit of any branch of science as applied to the sea and its contents 
will readily be supplied, and those who will undertake the work 
heartily welcomed. 
Repairs and alterations in the building concern chiefly the west 
block. The passages and staircase walls have been distempered 
and painted. The laboratory known as the physiological room, 
occupied at present by Mr. Garstang, is used for the purposes of 
the specimen department, but, if necessary, would serve, as it has 
done before, for physiological experiment. The new fittings include a 
slate-top table (seven feet by three feet) with a leaden sea-water 
supply pipe running along the wall behind it, and pierced for six 
vulcanite nozzles. A bench for microscope work, drawers, cup- 
boards, and shelves have also been added, In the same room I have 
provided an earthenware sink, with several fresh-water jets, which is 
enclosed in a cupboard with a rising wooden front (like a sash 
window), and serving to darken the sink completely, while speci- 
mens are washing in a stream of water after treatment with re- 
agents susceptible to the influence of light, as osmic acid, chromic 
acid, &ec. 
The old steam-launch, the “ Firefly,’’ has done good service in spite 
of her many and great disadvantages for our purposes. Since 
December last she has been finally laid up, and the eighteen-foot 
sailing-boat, the ‘‘ Anton Dohrn,” has been made good use of inside the 
Sound during the recent continuously stormy weather. The sea has 
been too high for work outside the Breakwater, but on calmer days a 
fast steam-tug, the ‘‘ Lorna,” is always at our disposal, on hire. 
Notwithstanding the fact that the past winter has been one of the 
coldest known for fifty years in Devonshire, the condition of the 
fish in the aquarium has remained extremely good, and none have 
died as in former winters. The red mullet referred to in Mr. Cun- 
ningham’s note have lived in the tanks since August last, and are all 
perfectly healthy. The whiting have been, and plaice and flounders 
still are spawning. The eggs of the spotted dog-fish, Scyllawm 
canicula, which have been fertilized and laid in the tanks, have deve- 
loped normally during the winter. 
I have placed between the tanks a series of water-colour drawings 
