SEA-FISHERIES LABORATORY. 411 



[Percy Sladen Trust Research.] 



THE NUTRITION AND METABOLISM OF MARINE 

 ANIMALS:— THE EFFECTS IN THE LOBSTER 

 OF PROLONGED ABSTENTION FROM FOOD 

 IN CAPTIVITY. 



By Professor B. Moore, F.R.S., and George A. Herdman 



(From the Marine Biological Laboratory, Port Erin, and 

 the Bio-Chemical Laboratory, University of Liverpool.) 



The remarkable fact recorded in the previous paper,* 

 that lobsters in captivity in glass carboys refuse food, 

 even after days of abstention, and under such conditions 

 do not diminish, but often increase, in live body-weight, 

 appeared to demand more extended observation, especially 

 since no control animals had been preserved and set aside 

 at the outset of the experiments for comparative observa- 

 tion. Without such control observations, on the ratio 

 of live weight to dry weight of tissues, and the composition 

 of the latter in carbohydrate, fat, protein, and inorganic 

 matter, it becomes difficult on account of the slow rates of 

 oxidation to be quite certain of the source of the energy 

 utilised by the animal during such a prolonged period of 

 inanition. 



Accordingly, three series of experiments were 

 instituted, in each of which four lobsters were used. 

 The animals were chosen of convenient size for introduH ion 

 into the large vitriol carboys described in the previous 

 paper, and after weighing them they were so distributed 

 in the batches that the aggregate weights were nearly 

 balanced. 



* Sec p. 387. 

 CC 



