MARINE BIOLOGICAL STATION AT PORT ERIN. 53 



they were congregated. These Diatom-consuming 

 Nematodes were found among tufts of Corallina 

 officinalis in the rock-pools and in bunches of small 

 filamentous seaweeds, such as Polysiphonia, which were 

 growing epiphytically on Fucus vesiculosus and Asco- 

 phyllum nodosum. Bastian has recorded the similar 

 occurrence of Diatoms in the intestine in the case of two 

 other genera of Nematodes. 



" The gall on the ' stems' of Ascophyllum nodosum 

 caused by the attacks of Tylenchus fucicola, a near 

 relative of T. devastatrix, the notorious Stem Eel-worm, 

 was also found. This is the first gall made by a 

 Nematode to have been found on seaweed. 



"Some of the above observations formed the 

 subject of a short letter which appeared in ' Nature ' on 

 May 30th." 



Mr. V. H. Mottram, who has been researching at 

 the Biological Station on the fats of fishes and of their 

 food, sends me the following short report upon his 

 work : — 



" In May the fatty acids of the myotomes, the livers 

 and the food of the spawning pond plaice were investi- 

 gated, and in August those of plaice caught in the 

 neighbourhood. As far as fatty acid metabolism is 

 concerned, the plaice from the spawning pond showed 

 no abnormality — they were closely comparable with 

 those from the sea. The iodine values of the liver fatty 

 acids ranged from 100 to 190 — average about 150. Those 

 of the myotome fatty acids were uniformly above 200 — 

 average 205 ; while those of the mussels were just below 

 200. 



"The results are being published in detail in the 

 ' Journal of Physiology,' and are already in the press." 



