bb TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



how, if reared in sewage-polluted waters, they can then be 

 cleansed and purified before being sent to market. 



The Lancashire and Western Joint Committee, realising 

 the present opportunity of benefiting such deserving industries, 

 have worked out several concrete cases where a moderate 

 expenditure either in transplanting or in purifying, or both, 

 would be likely to give immediate results, and have applied 

 to the Development Commission, through the Board of Agricul- 

 ture and Fisheries, for a grant to be expended during the present 

 spring upon this useful work. It will be unfortunate if, at 

 the present juncture, such directly productive expenditure, 

 which may reasonably be expected to lead to the establishment 

 of permanent shellfish industries, be prevented or delayed 

 for want of the comparatively small grant which is necessary 

 to start the work. 



The present Keporb on the work which the Scientific 

 Staff has been able to carry out during 1914 is, in the main, 

 on the same lines as the reports for the last few years, with, 

 of course, some necessary omissions caused by the interruption 

 of work at sea during the absence of the steamer. The members 

 of the Scientific Staff have, however, as will be seen from the 

 articles in the report, been kept fully occupied with other 

 work. Dr. Johnstone has been working at important questions 

 in connection with schemes for the improvement of mussel 

 cultivation on the Welsh Coast. Mr. Scott has been investi- 

 gating samples of whitebait from the Menai Straits. Mr. Riddell 

 has been fully occupied with the herring investigation which 

 we undertook at the request of the Board of Agriculture and 

 Fisheries. 



I shall now give a brief account of these and the 

 other investigations that are reported upon, but I should 

 like to express the hope that readers will not be content with 

 my imperfect editorial summary, but will read the details 

 for themselves in the several authors' own words. 



