MARINE BIOLOGICAL STATION AT PORT ERIN. 51 



corroborated and extended the above results. Estima- 

 tions were carried out to show the demand for 

 oxidisable food in various species of invertebrates, and 

 it was found that while the plankton supply, as found 

 generally distributed, might prove sufficient for the 

 nutrition of such sedentary animals as Sponges and 

 Ascidians, it is quite inadequate for active animals such 

 as Crustaceans, Molluscs and Fishes. These latter are, 

 however, able to seek out their food, and are not 

 dependent upon what they may filter or absorb from the 

 sea-water. 



The relative output of carbon-dioxide as compared 

 with intake of oxygen has been ascertained, and it is 

 shown that complete oxidation of the food does not 

 occur, the respiratory quotient lying well over unity in 

 most cases. A metabolic basis to account for this 

 peculiar respiratory condition is put forward in the 

 second paper on this research, which is nearly ready for 

 publication. 



Mr. Gilbert E. Johnson, M.Sc, of the Zoological 

 Research Laboratory in the University of Birmingham, 

 sends me the following report upon his work while 

 occupying the Birmingham University " Table " at 

 Port Erin: — 



"I spent about a week at the Laboratory during 

 the Easter vacation, working on Nematodes. I was 

 successful in my object of gaining some idea of the 

 little-known group of the free-living marine forms and 

 their distribution. 



"I collected samples of material from as varied 

 situations as possible round the shore, and found that 

 the free-living Nematodes are almost ubiquitous. They 

 occur in shore-sand, both wet and dry, on the under- 

 surfaces of large stones exposed at low tide, in fine 



