Scott*  has  recently  described  the  spawning  of  the  lobster.  The
female  lay  on  its  back,  and  the  eggs  flowed  down  into  the  incubatory
chamber  formed  by  the  flexed  abdomen.  When  the  eggs,  just  after  they
emerged  from  the  genital  openings,  were  placed  in  a  glass  of  sea-water
and  collected  into  a  heap  they  all  became  attached  one  to  the  other,  "  and
also  to  the  glass.  Moreover,  the  adhesive  material  only  remains  soft  for
a  short  time,  as  when  the  individual  eggs  were  isolated  and  prevented
from  adhering  to  the  glass  it  was  found  that  at  the  end  of  half-an-hour

•  Scott,  *.*0n  the  Spawning  of  the  Lobster."     Rj^ri  of  the  Lancashire  Sea-Fiihei'tet
LabarcUory  for  1902.    No.  xi.     Liverpool,  1903,  pp.  20  et  seq.
118  Part  HI, — Twenty-second  Annual  Report

the  adhesive  property  had  completely  disappeared."  The  stickiness  is
not  a  true  cement,  it  is  merely  an  alhuminous  substance,  not  a  fluid
'  chitin  "  capable  of  forming  an  outer  envelope.
While  it  is  not  easy  to  say  exactly  how  the  stalked  attachment  between
the  eggs  is  produced,  it  is  still  possible  to  describe  a  process  by  which
the  same  might  be  arrived  at.
