September 19, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



397 



Early in July a nest of the loggerhead turtle, 

 containing 135 eggs, was found on the ocean 

 beach of Bogue Bank. The eggs were removed 

 to the laboratory and placed in hatching boxes, 

 and 75 young turtles were hatched and re- 

 tained until winter. The economic value of 

 the loggerhead turtle is at present very small, 

 but the data secured from the experiments at 

 the laboratory will doubtless be useful if an 

 effort is ever made to cultivate more valuable 

 species of sea turtles. 



The decapod crustaceans of the Beaufort 

 region were studied some years ago by Dr. H. 

 A. Shore, but pressure of other matters made it 

 impossible for him to complete his report. It 

 is this unfinished work that has been taken 

 up by Professor Hay and is being put in shape 

 for publication. 



Dr. H. S. Davis, of the University of 

 Florida, devoted his time largely to studying 

 the life-history of a dimorphic species of 

 Myxosporidia occurring in the urinary bladder 

 and ureters of the squeteague, Cynoscion re- 

 galis. This species occurs in two very diiler- 

 ent forms (one disporous, the other polyspor- 

 ous) and possesses many characters of great 

 interest, notably a method of reproduction 

 by internal budding hitherto unknown in the 

 Myxosporidia. The development of the spores 

 was worked out in detail and has been found 

 to differ in many respects from the published 

 accounts of spore formation in other species. 

 The account of this work will shortly be ready 

 for publication. Observations were made on 

 a number of species of Myxosporidia occurring 

 in the gall bladders of sharks and others inhab- 

 iting other marine fishes, and a considerable 

 amount of material was preserved for future 

 study. 



Dr. J. F. Abbott, of Washington University, 

 St. Louis, Mo., conducted various experiments 

 on the fiddler crab (Uca), which abounds in 

 the neighborhood of Beaufort Harbor. 



(a) The question of the relative permeabil- 

 ity of tissues and particularly of gill mem- 

 branes to pure distilled water is still an open 

 one. Fundulus heteroclitus appears to be im- 

 permeable to and unaffected by immersion in 

 pure distilled water. From the apparent im- 



munity of the fiddler crab to fresh and distilled 

 water it appears at first that it, like Fundulus, 

 oifers a similar exception to the rule that 

 animal membranes are freely permeable. It 

 was discovered after prolonged experiment that 

 the crab stores up very small quantities of sea 

 water in its gill chamber, with which it mod- 

 ifies the pure water sufficiently to preserve its 

 life. If the gill chamber be cut away and the 

 cavity washed out, this immunity disappears 

 and the crab succumbs to the effect of the 

 water with an increase of weight (indicating 

 the penetration of water) and a loss of salts 

 (discoverable by titrating the immersing 

 naedium for chlorides). If the amount of 

 water be small the crab is able by emitting 

 minute quantities of electrolytes to alter the 

 medium sufficiently to nullify the destructive 

 solvent action of the pure water on the gill- 

 membranes. An account of this portion of the 

 work has been published in the Biological Bul- 

 letin of the Marine Biological Laboratory at 

 Woods Hole, Mass. (Vol. 24, p. 169, 1912). 



(6) Other lines of experiment on the nulli- 

 fying action of one poisonous component of 

 the sea water by another were carried out, 

 leading to results which in general substan- 

 tiate J. Loeb's hypothesis of balanced solutions 

 as worked out on marine vertebrates. 



(c) In connection with the storage of water 

 in the gill-chamber mentioned above, the 

 morphology of the apparatus by means of 

 which the crab is enabled to leave the water 

 for long intervals of time was worked out. 

 An opening is to be found between the third 

 and fourth pereipods, which is fringed with 

 hairs and leads up through a narrow channel 

 to a space above the gills. It is provided with 

 a valvular stop and with a structure which ap- 

 pears to function as a sense organ. It was as- 

 certained that the crab does not " breathe air " 

 as frequently stated, but aerates the water thus 

 retained in its gill chambers. 



(d) During the summer of 1912 a large 

 number of fiddler crabs were captured and 

 preserved for the purpose of determining the 

 variation constants and the establishment of 

 " place modes." It is planned to continue the 

 work for a number of seasons in order to de- 



