468 transactions liverpool biological society. 



Methods. 

 All the larvae were captured by means of tow- 

 nets, and the great majority of those collected by me 

 were fixed and preserved in the boat immediately after 

 capture ; the fixative in nearly all cases being a saturated 

 solution of corrosive sublimate, in which, however, the 

 specimens were not allowed to remain longer than one 

 minute. My usual practice is to invert the tow-net into 

 a wide-mouthed bottle containing the fixative. The 

 entire catch is then poured through an ordinary lamp 

 chimney, over the smaller end of which a small piece of 

 bolting silk is tightly stretched and held in position by 

 means of a strong rubber band. When all the fixative 

 has been strained off, the piece of silk is dropped into 

 another wide-mouthed bottle containing 70 % spirit, and 

 well shaken until all the organisms are free. The spirit 

 is changed at least once on arrival in the laboratory. 

 Gravely isolated many of his larvae, and narcotised them, 

 especially the echinoplutei, with a 1 % solution of 

 chloretone, and the results, especially in the later stages 

 of the metamorphosis, are excellent. These results 

 should, however, always be checked by fixing the contents 

 of at least one haul of the tow-net on every occasion, as 

 maceration of the delicate tissues of the larvae begins 

 with capture, and is liable to mislead the student. 



Historical. 



The first records we have of the occurrence of 

 Echinoderm larvae in the neighbourhood of Port Erin 

 are those of Herdman (7), who, however, merely referred 

 the larvae observed in the local plankton during the 

 months of July and August, 1885, to their respective 

 orders. More recently Herdman and Scott (8) have 



