MODERN INVESTIGATIONS OF THE SUBJECT 23 



researches leading to the improvement of zoological and 

 botanical science, and to an increase of our knowledge as 

 regards the food, life-conditions, and habits of British food- 

 fishes and molluscs " ; and this double purpose of pure scientific 

 investigation on the one hand, and of special fishery study on 

 the other, has been strictly adhered to by the Council in its 

 management of the funds at its disposal. The Fishmongers' 

 Company contributed ;^200 a year, raised later to ^400 a year, 

 to the Association, whilst Her Majesty's Government have given 

 i^Soo a year in the years 1888-89, 1889-90, 1890-91, and i^i,ooo 

 a year in the years following. Private individuals have given 

 annual donations of ;^200 and upwards to promote special 

 researches, and contributions have been received from other city 

 companies and from the Royal Society. Besides the investigations 

 noted in the present chapter, which have contributed largely to our 

 knowledge of food fishes, the Plymouth Laboratory has to reckon, 

 as a no less important outcome of its activity, a long list of scien- 

 tific memoirs on the embryology and anatomy of marine organisms 

 of all kinds, the result of researches made within its walls by 

 British and foreign naturalists who have availed themselves of 

 the facilities for study there provided. 



In 1890 were published two elaborate memoirs on the 

 development and life-histories of food-fishes, namely, " The 

 Development and Life Histories of Teleostean Fishes," by Prof. 

 Mcintosh and Mr. E. E. Prince {Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin. xxxv., 

 3), and " A Treatise on the Common Sole," by myself. Of the 

 first memoir, which is somewhat voluminous, the first ten sections 

 have little direct bearing on fisheries, treating of the development 

 of the eggs of fishes as a purely zoological subject. Section XI. is 

 devoted to the embryonic larval and post larval stages of fishes 

 and forms a valuable contribution to our knowledge of the Q2,'gi. 

 of fishes and the earliest condition of the }'oung after hatching 

 Section XIII., the last, is one of the most important, giving a 

 full account of the previously unknown eggs and development of 

 '(ko. c'AX-^sh., AiiarrhicJias liiptis,-A. fish which is common on the 

 east coast, and sometimes eaten, though not of great value in the 

 market. The memoir is illustrated by twenty-eight lithographed 

 plates. 



My memoir on the sole is illustrated by eighteen plates, to 

 the production of which very great labour and expense were 



