184 TRAXSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



question now arises for the first time in this county. 

 Hitlierto no recog-nised standards have been established, 

 since the kind of work done so far has consisted of 

 investigation of the condition of shell-fish or shell-fish 

 layings with reference to some special question — an 

 epidemic, etc. — arising in relation to some specified 

 locality. If the Committee should decide to issue 

 certificates of purity — or withhold them — some standard 

 of bacteriological impurity, as well as some standard of 

 other available evidence, must be adopted. 



It is fortunate that there are, in the Lancashire and 

 Western Sea Fisheries District, some shell-fish areas 

 whicli, so far as we can judge, are almost free from 

 ]K)llution at least free from dangerous pollution. 

 Bacteriological results obtained from such localities may 

 assist in the formation of a standard. At all events it 

 will be necessary for the Committee, in the absence of 

 the guidance or the experience of other public bodies, to 

 set up its own criteria of what constitutes a dangerously 

 polluted mussel or cockle. 



It is clear, then, that a very important part of the 

 work of Sea Fisheries Authorities in the future, if our 

 great shell-fish industries arc to be maintained, will be 

 the periodic inspection of the whole coast by competent 

 scientific men working on rational lines, such as those 

 adopted by the late Dr. Bulstrode, where all the factors 

 of the problem are taken into consideration. The 

 granting of a certificate implies the institution of some 

 standard of purity and in fixin<>' Ihis 1o])()<>Taphicnl details 

 must be fully considered ; and the results of the further 

 bacteriolop-ical annlvscs ;ito to br interpreted in the 

 li^rht of sucli (Icliiils. It is doublful whether we are 

 ever justified in ii])])lying llic icsiiUs ol b;i(t(>rIol(i<4Mc;i I 

 Dualvsis alone in administTativ(> rouiine. It would, lu) 



