328 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



REPORT ON VARIOUS 



BACTERIOLOGICAL ANALYSES OF MUSSELS 



FROM LANCASHIRE AND WALES. 



By Jas. Johnstone. 



1. — On the Bacteriological Analysis of Mussels from 

 St. Annes-on-the-Sea. 



At the last meeting of the Scientific Sub-Committee 

 in May, 1906, instructions were given to make a 

 bacteriological examination of the mussels on the bed near 

 St. Annes. Accordingly on June 6th, 1906, Dr. Jenkins, 

 Mr. J. Wright and I visited the locality in question and 

 I then collected a sample for analysis. 



The sewer at St. Annes is an iron pipe 24 inches in 

 diameter which runs out over the foreshore to the low 

 water mark of ordinary spring tides, and discharges 

 some distance North of the town into the channel known 

 as North Channel or Hollow. The flow of sewage 

 through the pipe is continuous and there is delivered 

 every 24 hours approximately 227,800 gallons (=25 

 gallons per head of population). The sewage is quite 

 untreated. 



The mussel bed is situated near to, and indeed round, 

 the sewage outfall, and some little distance to the South 

 of the latter. It is a small bed but the mussels on it 

 are fairly abundant. The shellfish are of good quality, 

 with fine, clean and thin shells, apparently rapidly 

 growing fish. Those examined were apparently well- 

 nourished and healthy molluscs. The ground was, at the 

 time when I collected the sample, fairly hard and clean. 

 There were quite a number of starfishes on the bed, and to 

 the presence of these animals is to be ascribed the unusual 



