70 TEANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



at some institution where oceanographical research is now 

 being actively carried on. 



During these years several of our younger Zoologists were 

 working at L.M.B.C. Memoirs which have since been published. 

 These include " Pecten " and " Buccinum " by W. J. Dakin, 

 " Eupagurus " by H. G. Jackson, " Ligia " by C. G. Hewitt, 

 " Cancer " by J. Pearson, " Antedon " by H. C. Chadwick, 

 and " Eledone " by A. Isgrove. " Tubifex " our last published 

 Memoir, by G-. C. Dixon, appeared in 1915. 



About' this time several of our bio-chemists, including 

 Professor B. Moore and Dr. Dakin, made elaborate investiga- 

 tions for the purpose of testing the figures recently put forward 

 by Putter and others as to the insufficiency of the plankton 

 to serve as food for marine animals. The primary objects of 

 these investigations were (1) to determine the amount of 

 organic carbon present in solution in sea- water, (2) to determine 

 the amount of the same substance present in the plankton, 

 and (3) to estimate the amount of organic carbon required 

 per day for the nourishment of selected marine animals. 

 Professor Moore reported :— 



" The results show conclusively that the amount of 

 dissolved organic carbon present in the sea- water is almost 

 negligible (lying well below one milligram per litre of water), 

 and that Putter's figures are very incorrect. It has also been 

 shown that the amount of plankton normally present and 

 distributed through the water is practically just as insufficient 

 to provide food if the sea- water is merely filtered, as it comes, 

 by a marine animal. Organic matter in solution and plankton 

 together do not seem present in sufficient quantity for the 

 nutrition of active marine animals, unless they hunt their food 

 or frequent the zones where plankton is especially abundant." 



Further work at Port Erin since has shown that, while 

 the plankton supply as found generally distributed might 

 prove sufficient for the nutrition of such sedentary animals 



