Litermy Notices. xliii 



gate during functional activity and shorten during fatigue, we have 

 taken a long step in the direction of a knowledge of the physical basis 

 of the corresponding emotions, as well as of the physiological facts as- 

 sociated with exercise and fatigue. c. j. H. 



The American Lobster.' 



Six years ago Dr. F. H. Herrick was invited by the United States 

 Commissioner of Fisheries to prepare a monograph on the Biology of 

 the American Lobster. A systematic investigation was begun and in 

 this final paper, which has been awaited with considerable eagerness by 

 the biologists, we have a summary not only of the author's own re- 

 searches, but of practically all that is known concerning the life history 

 of this species. The work makes 252 pages quarto and is accompan- 

 ied by 64 full page plates, many of them colored to life, illustrating 

 very fully the development and gross anatomy. The details of the fine 

 histology are not entered into except in a few cases. 



The practical and scientific value of the work are both very great. 

 It is not common to find both of these features so well represented in 

 a single monograph. 



One of the points of greatest practical importance, bearing on the 

 problems of the artificial culture of lobsters, is the chapter on The 

 History of the Larval and Early Adolescent Periods. The account of 

 the Embryology of the Lobster is more meager than we should have 

 expected from the fact that the author has devoted so much attention 

 to this subject and has already published several short papers. He 

 makes no attempt to give a detailed account of the embryonic history, 

 but a few notes merely on the early phases of development. 



From our standpoint the topics of especial interest centre about 

 the descriptions of the habits and organs of sense of the lobster. The 

 breeding habits, habits of migration and feeding and the like are quite 

 fully detailed. In its native haunts it shows considerable agility in 

 avoiding its enemies and cunning in the capture of its prey. The 

 senses of sight and and hearing are probably far from acute, but it pos- 

 sesses a keen sense of touch and of smell and probably also a sense of 

 taste. It is also quite sensitive to changes of temperature, this being 

 the factor in the environment which is in the main responsible for the 

 periodic migrations of the lobster. 



Experiments made with various stimuli, such as electricity, heat, 

 weak acetic acid, ammonia gas and clam juice, led to the conclusion that 



'Herrick, Fran'cis HoBART. The American Lobster: A Study of its 

 Habits and Development. Bulletin U. S. Fish Covtmission, 1895. 



