Morgulis. — Fasting on Lobsters 201 



of other fasting organisms we may assume that at this 

 particular phase of starvation the quantity of water in 

 the body would have diminished about a third. Starting 

 with a quantity of 112.7 grams of water, this would 

 have decreased to 75.1 grams at the end of fifty-six days 

 of fasting, had there been no compensating absorption 

 of water from the surrounding medium. The weight 

 of the lobsters would therefore have been 109.8 grams, 

 and the loss 34.4 per cent., instead of 2.73 per cent. The 

 hard shell protecting the entire body of the lobster and 

 forming a solid supporting structure, apparently pre- 

 vents the cells of the soft tissues from shrinking as they 

 ordinarily do under the influence of inanition* when the 

 cell inclusions are being used up. This may explain the 

 extraordinary extent of the imbibition of water by the 

 tissues as their reserves are being gradually exhausted. 

 The relative increase in the water content of the body 

 which invariably occurs in inanition is unquestionably 

 to reduce the concentration of the body juices. But the 

 great absorption of water by the tissues of starving 

 lobsters is the result primarily of mechanical factors, the 

 tissues imbibing an excess of water in the manner of a 

 sponge. 



* Morgulis, S., Archiv fiir Entwicklungsmechnik d. Org, 32, p. 169, 

 1911. 



