Report for 1907 on the Lancashire Sea-Fisheries Laboratory at the University of Liverpool and the Sea-Fish Hatchery at Piel

Abstract

ABOUT half the bulk of this report is devoted to a monograph on the edible crab by Mr. Joseph Pearson. Excellent features of this work, which is illustrated with twelve plates and numerous diagrams in the text, are the methodical arrangement of the matter and the clearness and simplification of the descriptions. Hitherto, students who aspired to more than a general knowledge of the anatomy and development of the crab have had to search out and abstract for themselves the numerous original memoirs scattered in various scientific journals in different languages, a labour which only specialists care to undertake. It is, therefore, extremely useful to have all these researches carefully epitomised and brought together in one volume. Again, although the general features of the anatomy and development are fairly well known to readers of text-books, the average student knows very little about the habits of the crab, partly because the literature of this part of the subject is mainly of recent growth, and partly because the original memoirs dealing with it are contained in reports which have a somewhat limited circulation. Accordingly, much of the information contained in the section of this work which deals with “Bionomics,” namely, such matters as the migrations, spawning habits, rate of growth, age and size at maturity, frequency of casting, “autotomy” and limb-regeneration, &c., will be new to those readers who have not consulted the more recent annual reports of the Fishery Board for Scotland and other journals. Altogether, Mr. Pearson's monograph maintains the high standard of excellence characteristic of the series of “L.M.B.C. memoirs” of which it is the latest number. This series of monographs can only be described as a boon both to general students and specialists.

Report for 1907 on the Lancashire Sea-Fisheries Laboratory at the University of Liverpool and the Sea-Fish Hatchery at Piel.

Drawn up by Prof. W. A. Herdman., assisted by Mr. Andrew Scott and Mr. James Johnstone. No. xvi. Pp. 406; with illustrations. (Liverpool, 1908.)