184 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



question now arises for the first time in this county. 

 Hitherto no recognised standards have been, established, 

 since the kind of work done so far has consisted of 

 investigation of the condition of shell-fish or shell-fish 

 layings with reference to some special question — an 

 epidemic, etc. — arising in relation to some specified 

 locality. If the Committee should decide to issue 

 certificates of purity — or withhold them — some standard 

 of bacteriological impurity, as well as some standard of 

 other available evidence, must be adopted. 



It is fortunate that there are, in the Lancashire and 

 Western Sea Fisheries District, some shell-fish areas 

 which, so far as we can judge, are almost free from 

 pollution — at least free from dangerous pollution. 

 Bacteriological results obtained from such localities may 

 assist in the formation of a standard. At all events it 

 will be necessary for the Committee, in the absence of 

 the guidance or the experience of other public bodies, to 

 set up its own criteria of what constitutes a dangerously 

 polluted mussel or cockle. 



It is clear, then, that a very important part of the 

 work of Sea Fisheries Authorities in the future, if our 

 great shell-fish industries are to be maintained, will be 

 the periodic inspection of the whole coast by competent 

 scientific men working on rational lines, such as those 

 adopted by the late Dr. Bulstrode, where all the factors 

 of the problem are taken into consideration. The 

 granting of a certificate implies the institution of some 

 standard of purity and in fixing this topographical details 

 must be fully considered ; and the results of the further 

 bacteriological analyses are to be interpreted in the 

 light of such details. It is doubtful whether we are 

 ever justified in applying the results of bacteriological 

 analysis alone in administrative routine. It would, no 



