TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION D. 489 
limited field—some organising ‘or co-ordinating machinery that will bring to bear 
on a question like this all available reputable specialist opinion that is likely to 
be useful, both in the preliminary stages when a plan of campaign is to be 
formulated, and in the latter phases when examination, criticism, correlation of 
results, and the formulation of a working policy are required. 
It is suggested that if such machinery existed not only would the prospects 
of such missions as the Ceylon one, undertaken under the support of a powerful 
Government, and backed at a later stage by strong financiers, be brighter, and 
the mistakes which have unquestionably been made in this case be practically 
impossible, but the public would soon begin to realise that there were available 
expert ‘courts of appeal’ to protect the investor from the too hastily formed 
schemes of enthusiastic scientists, or from the promoter posing before the layman 
as a scientific expert. 
2. Note on an Hermaphrodite Amphiozus. 
By HK. 8. Goopricu, F.R.S. 
A single hermaphrodite specimen of Amphioxus lanceolatus was found at 
Naples in the summer of 1911. It is an adult ripe male with twenty-five gonads 
on each side. All these are typical testes containing spermatozoa only, with the 
exception of the ninth gonadial sac on the left side, which contains ova only, 
and is in the form of a typical ovary. This appears to be the only instance of 
hermaphroditism yet described in the Cephalochordata. 
3. On Scottish Sea-fisheries, 1898-1912. 
By Professor W. C. McInvosu, F.R.S. 
When the British Association last met in Dundee (1867) the scientific study 
of the marine fisheries had not begun, though considerable attention had been 
devoted to the life-history of the salmon. Indeed, it was sixteen or seventeen 
years later before a commencement was made with this important subject—under 
the auspices of Lord Dalhousie, the Chairman of the Royal Commission on 
‘Trawling and the Fisheries (1883-85). This Commission was appointed in 
response to urgent appeals in regard to the supposed decadence of the sea- 
fisheries in general. The subject has already been dealt with in its earlier aspects 
in &@ communication to the Edinburgh Meeting of the British Association in 1892 
(viz., “A Brief Sketch of the Scottish Fisheries, chiefly in their Scientific Aspects 
during the past decade, 1882-1892’), in the ‘ Resources of the Sea’ in 1898, and in 
1903 (a second decade) after the international scheme of work had been outlined. 
‘Two lectures were also given at the Royal Institution in May 1907 (‘ Zoologist ’ 
and ‘ Nature’). The object of the present communication is to carry the subject 
up to date, and to consider what conclusions may safely be drawn from a review 
of the whole question. 
Tn the ‘Resources of the Sea’ an abstract of the yearly captures by liners and 
trawlers up to 1897 (inclusive) was entered, and, for the sake of continuity, a 
similar abstract is given up to 1911, so that the yearly fluctuations may be 
observed and explanatory remarks made where necessary. Without going into 
detail in this abstract, it will be seen how steadily the yield of the fisheries has 
advanced, so that within a period of twenty-five years the amount has been nearly 
doubled. Yet in the case of the white fishes the period mentioned has seen the 
gradual diminution of the captures of the liners almost to half the amount. The 
increase of the captures by net, however, within the same period have been nearly 
doubled, so it may be that greater attention is paid by the liners to the herring 
fishery than to the white fishing. During the twenty-five years, on the other 
hand, the captures by trawlers have increased no less than sixfold, and appear 
to be still increasing, whilst their entrance into competition with the liners in the 
capture of herrings, so long solely in the hands of the liners, may conduce to 
further changes. 
A careful perusal of the annual statistics of the Fishery Board for Scotland, 
of the statistical bulletin of the International Bureau for the North Sea, as well 
