ELEVENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 63 
i a ES 
inside of another box, in which the water was made to rise and 
fall alternately by means, of an intermittently active siphon of 
wide caliber, the supply being carried into the outer box in a 
constant stream through a smaller pipe. The oscillation of the 
water level in the outer box so arranged was depended upon to 
change the water in the inner boxes with the porous bottoms 
containing the eggs. The same difficulty presented itself, how- 
ever, and the porous bottoms of the hatching-boxes soon became 
impervious, owing to the swelling of the fibers of the paper, as 
well as on account of the accumulation of slimy sediment in the. 
substance of the latter. The outflow from the inner boxes was 
then impeded from the same cause, and as the siphon emptied 
the outer box the water in the inner one would not fall quickly 
enough to effect any considerable change. Here our experi- 
ments have broken down completely, and all the results so: far 
reached with such apparatus have not been of sufficient value to 
make it desirable to repeat them, although conducted with the 
help of three different forms of apparatus. 
Recently, Professor S. I. Smith, of Yale College, has succeeded 
in incubating the eggs of certain crustaceans in shallow plates 
without changing the water at all, but by simply areating and 
keeping it in constant circulation by means of jets of air play- 
ing constantly upon its surface. This mode of incubation ap- 
pears to fulfil.the requirements of the case fully, as far as I can 
now see, and it will be of the greatest importance to test this 
method at the earliest possible opportunity. By its use we will 
be able to avoid the loss of eggs which would follow from the 
employment of any method in which there is a current ot water 
constantly running in and flowing out of the incubating con- 
trivance, besides we would avoid contact with poisonous metal- 
lic surfaces, be enabled to keep down the temperature of the 
water by slow evaporation and prevent putrefaction by means 
of rapid oxidation. 
Should we be able to artificially incubate the eggs of the oys- 
ter and keep them alive until the time when the embryos attach 
themselves to foreign objects, we will have attained such a suc- 
cess as will probably never be paralleled in fish-culture. The 
artificial impregnation of the eggs of the oyster may be accom- 
