MARINE BIOLOGICAL STATION AT PORT ERIN. 49 



very minute living organisms suspended in the water, 

 but are dependent for their food upon dissolved organic 

 matter which is found, he states, in sea-water and is 

 directly absorbed — the sea being thus itself a nutritive 

 medium. Professor Moore has drawn up the following 

 report upon the work carried on by his colleagues and 

 himself in the Easter vacation : — 



" Our work was commenced at Port Erin Biological 

 Station in April, and was continued during the Easter 

 vacation. This work was connected with the elaboration 

 of new methods, and the testing of those methods which 

 had been devised and used by Putter and others, and it 

 has already led to results which are fairly conclusive. A 

 commencement has also been made upon the investigation 

 of the respiratory needs of animals, which is most 

 suggestive and has opened up new problems. The 

 primary objects of all these investigations were: — 



" 1st, to determine the amount of organic carbon 

 present in solution in the sea-water; 



"2nd, to determine the amount of the same 

 substance present in the plankton ; 



"3rd, to estimate the amount of organic carbon 

 required per day by certain marine animals. 



" The water used was, in some instances, collected 

 and treated at a point some miles out in the Irish Sea, 

 and our thanks are due to Professor Herdman for the 

 use of his steam-yacht ' Runa ' in connection with this 

 part of the work. On other occasions the water was 

 collected nearer shore, in Port Erin Bay or in the 

 aquarium of the Biological Station. 



" Apparatus was fitted up so that water pumped from 

 the sea with considerable speed could be filtered first 

 through the finest silk bolting cloth of the kind used in 

 ordinary plankton nets, and then through a Cbamberland 



