26 



and preserved its ovaries. When the last survivor was 

 taken, May 1st, 1901, just ten months and twelve days 

 from the beginning of the experiment not one of the 

 animals had laid eggs. Further an examination of the 

 ovaries disclosed no evidence of absorption of the ova, or 

 abnormal retardation of their growth, such as we might 

 look for upon the theory of annual spawning — nothing in 

 fact but a slow regular growth of the organs." Further, 

 " The theory of biennial spawning is supported : (1) By 

 the statistics of the fishery ; (2) by the anatomy of the 

 ovary of the adult female taken at ditt'erent seasons ; (u) 

 by the ratio of growth of a given generation of ovarian ova 

 for stated periods ; (4) by observations on animals kept 

 alive for long periods ; (5j by the evidence of the rapid 

 growth of ovarian eggs of spawners for any given year, 

 during the height of the breeding season. It is to be 

 expected that the rule to which the majority conforms has 

 many exceptions in individual cases, for variation is the 

 rule of life. It seems quite probable that occasionally a 

 lobster may lay eggs in two consecutive seasons, and that 

 in other cases the normal biennial period may even be 

 prolonged, but I have nothing further to oifer under this 

 head." 



Much of the evidence in support of Herrick's latest 

 conclusions on the theory of biennial spawning appears to 

 be based upon the experiment carried out by Mr. 

 Edwards. This experiment was not carried out on the 

 lines suggested by Herrick in his work on the lobster, and 

 is not altogether a satisfactory one. There is nothing to 

 show that the eggs carried by the lobsters at the beginning 

 of the experiment, hatched out naturally and were there- 

 fore extruded during the previous year, and there was no 

 obvious need to kill one lobster each month to discover 

 whether it was going to extrude eggs or not. The better 



