192 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE. 
Mr. H. O. 8. Gibson occupied a table from the beginning of 
November, 1908, until April 23, 1909. His investigations consisted in 
an attempt to habituate Mysis to live in increasingly fresh water with a 
view to tracing possible changes in structure due to the change in 
environment. He also spent some time in investigating the digestion 
and secretion of Squilla mantis, and will pursue the subject further on 
the material prepared at the station and brought home with him. 
Mr. W. J. Dakin sends in the report which is appended. 
Colonel Shepherd occupied the table from the end of October 
until March 10, and collected a large number of the otoliths of fishes 
with the view to the publication of a memoir on these structures. He 
also collected a number of specimens of the pharyngeal teeth of fishes, 
upon which he proposes to publish a series of papers at a later date. He 
writes to the Committee to say that it would have been impossible for 
him to have made so much progress with the investigation he has in 
hand but for the opportunities and assistance he received at the Zoological 
Station at Naples. 
Mr. F. F. Dreyer arrived at the station at the beginning of April and 
was still there at the time of the receipt of his report. He carried on 
some investigations on the nervous system of the Afolidide. He has 
obtained the best results by using Apathy’s method of preserving and 
mounting, and has already obtained some interesting results. His work 
is not yet sufficiently advanced to enable him to send us a detailed report, 
but he hopes to be able to publish a paper on the nervous and blood- 
vascular systems of the Aolidide at the end of the year. 
Mr. C. Martin visited the station during the Easter vacation in 
order to continue his investigations on the structure of the Acinetaria. 
With reference to the report of last year, the Committee would refer 
to the important paper published by Mr. C. Clifford Dobell in the 
‘Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science,’ Vol. 53, 1909, on the 
Infusoria Parasitic on Cephalopoda. This paper represents a part only 
of the work done by Mr. Dobell during the time he occupied the Associa- 
tion’s table at Naples last year. 
Mr. Whitehouse has prepared a large and important memoir on the 
structure of the caudal fin of fishes, which has been submitted as a 
thesis for the degree of M.Sc. of the University of Birmingham. It 
will be published shortly. 
In conclusion, the Committee wish to call attention to the increasing 
volume and importance of the original work that is done by the occupants 
of the Association’s table at Naples, and ask to be reappointed with a 
grant of 1001. 
Report of Mr. W. J. Dakin, B.Sc. 
The following is a brief résumé of the research I was engaged in 
whilst occupying the British Association table at the Zoological Station 
of Naples during the past winter. I arrived in Naples on November 1 
and left at the end of February, so that I occupied the table for four 
months. The latter part of the time was devoted mainly to the collec- 
tion and preservation of material for continuation of the histological 
work at home, the earlier part of my stay to an elaboration of methods. 
I have, unfortunately, not been able to work at my slides or other 
material since I arrived back in England owing to pressure of work in 
