166 TBAXSACTIOXS LIVEETOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



(and which had been laid before the Eoval Commission on 

 Sewao-e Disposal* then sitting) in regard to the serious 

 contamination by sewage of some of the shell-fish beds 

 of the district. This article included the report by the 

 late Mr. R. A. Dawson, then the Superintendent of the 

 Fisheries District, on the mussel beds of our coasts in 

 regard to danger of pollution by sewage, revealing a very 

 serious state of affairs in seme parts of the district. 



In connection with this article in the 1903 Eeport we 

 have the first of Mr. Johnstone's papers on the bacteriology 

 of samples of mussels from tlie Mersey Estuary. This 

 report was submitted to the Lancashire Sea Fisheries 

 Committee and was also communicated to the Board of 

 Agriculture and Fisheries at their request. Mr. John- 

 stone demonstrated the presence in these mussels of 

 bacilli which were regarded as affording certain evidence 

 of sewage pollution. This investigation was followed by 

 the examination of samples of mussels from various other 

 beds in the district; and in all these cases in whicli 

 sewage contamination Avas reported upon from this 

 Laboratory we did not rely upon the bacteriological 

 evidence alone — that evidence throughout has been used 

 as an impoitaiit corroboiatioii. bul not as the sole ])roof. 



In the fourth report of the Eoyal Commission on 

 Sewage Disposal, 1904, the Commissioners state that they 

 would not be justified in recommending that the closing 

 of a sliell-fish bed or laying sliouhl depend as a maiter of 

 routine on the results of the bacteriological examination, 

 and ihis is very much the conclusion at which Mr. 

 Johnstone and I had llien arrived as the I'esult of our 

 experience, and it is the opinion that I gave in my 

 evidence before the Roj-al Commission. In 190-i I 

 expressed my views on the question of samples as 

 follows : — 



• See Fourth Heport of the Commissioners, Cd. 1884, p. 90, 1904i 



