82 LOBSTERS. 



water into the internal viscera and so derange the internal 

 economy of the animal hence the gills are enveloped in a thin 

 membranous tissue wall enclosing them completely on each 

 side of the carapace, as will be seen by looking at the interior 

 of the exoskeleton I exhibit. 



The almost invariable colour of the shell of the British 

 lobster, when alive, is, as we know, bluish-black, with various 

 spots and blotches, but when boiled at a temperature of 212 

 Fah., or when the shell has been immersed in alcohol (as my 

 exhibit in the bottle has been) or ether, or acids, it turns red, 

 owing to the action of these substances upon the bluish- 

 black pigment secreted by the epidermis and diffused over the 

 tegumentary armour. Herrick mentions, however, very 

 many varieties of colours that have been found (freaks, of 

 course), amongst them being blue, red, cream, spotted (or 

 leopard), parti-coloured, &c., a fine specimen of which I possess. 



The lobster exudes its eggs and attaches them to the so- 

 called swimmerets, which are small appendages under the 

 abdominal segments. There they remain undergoing a 

 procees of ripening, consisting, according to Fullarton, of ten 

 embryonic changes, for about nine months, after which the 

 young ones are hatched, and, unlike the young of the crab 

 and some shrimps (which are scarcely recognisable as such 

 when born), the young lobsters scarcely undergo any meta- 

 morphosis at all ; the appendages of their abdomens are the 

 last to appear, and their eyes are for some time sessile, 

 Herrick says a lobster Sin. long produces about 5,000 eggs, 

 lOin. long 10,000, 12in. 21,000, and so on in ever increasing 

 order. The largest number of eggs recorded for one lobster 

 is 97,440, the lobster being about 15in. to 16in. long. The age 

 to which a lobster would live is, I suppose, not yet known, as 

 they have not been kept in captivity sufficiently long, or 

 numerically, to decide that point, but there is one in the 

 Aquarium of the Marine Biological Association at Plymouth, 

 which I was informed was 20 years old. Many years ago, 

 too, I am informed, a lobster was discovered in a hole 

 behind some rocks at Swanage in such a position that it 



