416 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Although the live weight remains constant, even after 

 more than 200 days without food, the analyses show that 

 the total dried weight has fallen from an average of 

 8431 to 59'70, and this reduced dried weight also consists 

 much more largely of inorganic constituents, for the ash 

 of the normal lobster averages 48' 13 per cent, of the dried 

 weight, while the ash of the lobsters kept without food 

 averages 64' 82 per cent, of the dried weight. 



The ash subtracted from the total dried weight 

 gives the total organic matter, and when this 

 operation is carried out it appears that the con- 

 trol lobsters possess 51'87 per cent, of their weight as 

 organic matter, while the experimental lobsters have only 

 35'18 per cent, of their weight as organic matter. If now 

 these percentages be applied to the actual dried weights 

 in grains, then it appears that the average weight of 

 organic matter in the four control lobsters is 43'73 grams, 

 while the corresponding average for the four experimental 

 lobsters which fasted through the more prolonged periods 

 is 21 00 grams. The difference in these two figures gives 

 the amount of organic matter upon which the animals 

 have subsisted. It averages for each lobster 22' 73 grams, 

 and the period without food averages 213 days. The 

 daily consumption of organic matter from the tissues of 

 the animal accordingly averages 107 milligrams. 



The details of analysis given in the table demonstrate 

 that the organic matter undergoing oxidation is mainly 

 protein, and for protein the weight of oxygen for com- 

 bustion slightly exceeds the weight of the dry protein, 

 so that the consumption daily of 107 milligrams of protein 

 would mean the disappearance each day of 120 to 130 

 milligrams of oxygen on an average throughout the 

 period. 



The actual determinations of oxygen as stated earlier 



