296 
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 
la. 
lb 
lc 
Id 
Ser. 1 
o 
Ser. II 
2b 
2 c 
place, criticises as follows: “There is nothing to show that the eggs carried by the 
lobsters at the beginning of the experiment hatched out naturally and were therefore 
extruded during the previous year.” On the contrary, all were of the class which we 
call “old egg” or “light egg” lobsters, which taken in June means that these eggs were 
laid the previous summer, and can mean nothing else, unless the rarely occurring “fall” 
and “winter” eggs which I have described can reach the hatching point in June, a sup- 
position still awaiting proof. 
There is, further, no evidence that 
the removal of the mechanically 
attached eggs from a lobster in 
June alters its physiological con- 
dition. Mr. Scott says further: 
“There was no obvious need to 
kill one lobster each month to 
discover whether it was going to 
extrude eggs or not.” This would 
seem to be an obvious conclusion, 
but it should have been equally 
clear that this step was taken for 
another purpose, namely, to follow 
the changes which were taking 
place in the ovary itself. The con- 
dition of the ovary tells us at once 
whether growth of the ova is active 
or slow, or whether an absorption 
of the eggs already formed is going 
on. The step was far from need- 
less, for after July it proved that 
there was no preparation for the 
production of fall or winter eggs. 
In other words, it showed that in 
these animals there was no tend- 
ency to produce eggs in each of 
two consecutive years, the chief 
point in the experiment. It was 
impossible to foresee how many of 
these animals would die in the course of their confinement or because of it, but had all 
of them lived two-thirds of the total number at the start, or 24, would have had a 
chance to spawn in 13 months from the time the experiment began.® 
2a, 
3 a, 
Fig. 30. — Diagram to illustrate growth in a single generation of lobster’s 
eggs during a period of nearly 3 years, from an initial stage in ovary to 
time of hatching. Ser. 1, internal or ovarian eggs; Ser. 11, external or at- 
tached eggs. 1 a, ovarian egg immediately after egg-laying; 1 b, the same, 
15 days after; 1 c , the same 42 days after; 1 d, the same 1 year after; 2 a, the 
same in second growth period, 1 year and 10 months after egg-laying; 2 b, 
fresh laid egg; 2 c, “strictly” fresh, but removed from ovary or duct; 3 a, 
last period of growth in shell, or egg-embryo about to hatch. Sizes de- 
duced from averages of 10 eggs in nearly every case. Enlarged about 20 
diameters. 
a The experiment would have been more satisfactory if the directions, which were as follows, had been carried out: “ Preserve 
the ovary of one lobster the first day of each month from July to December. If the number of lobsters should warrant it, con- 
tinue to preserve the ovaries of one animal from January 1 until July. If, however, the remaining lobsters are few in number, 
and do not stand the confinement well, keep all as long as possible, preserving the ovary of each one that dies. * * * In case 
the lobsters die rapidly in late summer or early autumn, preserve ovaries of those only which die, giving the date.” 
