INTRODUCTION. 



The present work when originally undertaken in 1903 was designed to form the 

 zoological part of a history of the lobster in both America and Europe, but subsequent 

 events led to a modification of this plan, and when it was decided to issue this section 

 separately, its character and scope were somewhat changed.- 



Dr. Hugh M. Smith, of the United States Bureau of Fisheries, had planned to deal 

 with the lobster fishery and the economic questions which this great industry has 

 raised, in a comprehensive manner, and hope is entertained that this design may still 

 be carried out. 



Though essentially a distinct work, this is in a measure both a revision and an 

 extension of my earlier report upon The American Lobster, published by the United 

 States Commission of Fish and Fisheries in its bulletin for 1895. But little from the 

 latter, however, has been incorporated directly, and this only when newer or better 

 research has failed to give us more light upon the subject. Slk drawings of the young 

 lobsters, three of which are in colors, have been reproduced, after slight revisions, from 

 my former report; all of the rest are new and deal chiefly with the anatomy of the body 

 and appendages, especially with torsion, reflex amputation, and the developmental 

 history of the toothed and cracker claws, the sexual organs, and the germ cells. I 

 have depended mainly upon the store of materials collected in former years, but have 

 received accessions from the United States Bureau of Fisheries, for which as well as for 

 many courtesies, now extending over a long period, I wish to offer my sincere thanks. 

 The Bureau has generously given me the privilege of a free lance, and all critical sections 

 of this paper should be read in the light of individual opinion only, directed, it is true, 

 in a friendly spirit, and as we believe from the standpoint of science. 



Our knowledge of the lobster has increased to such an extent during the past 

 fifteen years that in all probability there is no marine invertebrate in the world which 

 is now better known. This result is due to the suggestive ideas or elaborate researches 

 of a large body of naturalists in both America and Europe, and to their labors the 

 reader will find abundant reference in the pages which follow. As a result of this advance 

 in the biological field, a signal success has been achieved in the artificial propagation 

 or culture of the lobster, and particularly in rearing the delicate young to the bottom- 

 seeking stage, a success from which this fishery should not be slow to profit, and which 

 it owes to experiments begun under the auspices of the United States Fish Commission 

 at Woods Hole, Mass., and afterwards carried to a high degree of perfection by the 

 Commission of Inland Fisheries of Rhode Island, under the direction of Prof. Albert D. 

 Mead, at Wickford. Through the aid of such a practical method there is ground for 

 hope, not only of restoring our depleted fisheries on the Atlantic coast, but of estab- 

 lishing new ones on the Pacific, as well as in other parts of the world. 



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