On the Artificial Culture of Marine Plankton Organisms. · ten organisms, chiefl o varioufy diatomss species, . Petri dishes (4 in.) containin, 6g0 c.c eac.h of Miquel sea-water,

ARTIFICIAL CULTURE OF MARINE PLANKTON ORGANISMS. 361

On the Artificial Culture of Marine PlanktonOrganisms.

By

E. I. Allen, D.Sc,Director of Laboratories and Secretary of the Marine Biological

Association;

and

13. W. Nelson,1

Assistant Naturalist.

CONTKNTS.PAGE

Introduction '•. . . . . . 362I. Culture of Plankton Diatoms . . . 363

A. Practical Culture Methods . . . 3 6 31. Miquel's Method . . . . 3 6 32. Houghton Gill's Method . . . 3 6 83. (A) Modification of Miquel's Methods : " Miquel

Sea-water" . . . . 3 6 9(B) English Channel Water . . . 3 7 2(c) Tank-Water . . . . 3 7 3(D) Animal Charcoal Water . . . 374(E) Peroxide of Hydrogen Water . . 378(p) Cultures in these Media . . . 379

B. Experiments with a view to Determining the Con-ditions which underlie the Successful Culture ofDiatoms . . . . . 3 8 0

Methods . . . . . 3 8 2The Sea-water employed . . . 3S2The Constituents of Miquel's Solutions . . 383Animal Charcoal and Peroxide of Hydrogen . 389Reviving Exhausted Cultures . . . 390Silica . . . . . 3 9 1Organic Infusions . . . . . 392

1 Owing to pressure on our space, this memoir could not be publishedwhen first in. type. I t has in the meantime been issued in the ' Journalof the Marine Biological Association,' vol. viii, No. 5.—E. R. L.

362 v E. J. ALLEN AND E. W. NELSON.

PAGEA r t i f i c i a l S e a - w a t e r . . . . 3 9 3A l k a l i n i t y . . . .' . 3 9 5S a l i n i t y . . . ' . 4 0 2

L i g h t . . . . . . . '403T e m p e r a t u r e . . . . 404G e n e r a l C o n c l u s i o n s . . . . 405

I I . M i x e d C u l t u r e s . . . . . 4 0 7• I I I . N o t e s o n P a r t i c u l a r S p e c i e s of D i a t o m s , o n t h e i r M e t h o d s

of R e p r o d u c t i o n , a n d o n o t h e r Algse o c c u r r i n g i nC u l t u r e s . . . . . 4 1 2

I V . R e a r i n g of M a r i n e L a r v a e . . . . 4 1 7M e t h o d s . . . . . 4 1 7E c h i n u s a c u t u s . . . . 4 1 9E . e s c u l e n t u s . . . . . 420E . m i l i a r i s . . . . . 4 2 1C u c u m a r i a s a x i c o l a . . . . 422P o m a t o c e r o s t r i q u e t e r . . . 422C h t e t o p t e r u s v a r i o p e d a t u s . . . 4 2 3S a b e l l a r i a a l v e o l a t a . . . . 4 2 3A r c h i d o r i s t u b e r c u l a t a . . . 423C a l a n u s finmarchicus. . . . 424E c h i n u s h y b r i d . . . . . 425S a c c \ i l i n a c a r c i n i . . . . 425S u m m a r y of M e t h o d f o r R e a r i n g L a r v a e . . 426

B i b l i o g r a p h y . . . . . . 427

I N T R O D U C T I O N .

THE observations to be recorded in this paper were com-menced in March, 1905. They originated in an attempt tofind a general method for rearing marine larval forms.Several investigators had previously succeeded in rearingeehinoderms, molluscs, and polychastes from artificiallyfertilised eggs, under laboratory conditions, but the processwas generally difficult and the results more or less uncertain.The most promising method seemed to be that adopted byCiiswell Grave (26), who was able to rear his larvas by feed-ing- them on diatoms. Grave obtained his diatoms by placingsand, collected from the sea bottom, in aquaria, and usingsuch diatoms as developed from this material. All themethods, however, suffered from the uncertainty of not

ARTIFICIAL CULTUBE OF MARINE PLANKTON ORGANISMS.' 363

knowing what organisms were introduced into the aquaria inwhich the larvas were to be reared, either in the original sea-water or along with- the food supply.

It appeared, therefore,, at an early stage of the work, worthwhile to make an attempt to carry out rearing experimentson a more definite and precise plan, to endeavour, in fact, tointroduce the larvje to be reared into sterile sea-water, andto feed them with pure cultures of a suitable food. This wasthe ideal to be aimed at. As a matter of fact it has seldom,if ever, been attained in practice; nevertheless, a consider-able measure of success has been achieved by working uponthese lines, and dxiring the course of the work innumerableproblems relating to the physical conditions under whichplankton organisms can best nourish have presented them-selves. Some account of the experiments made may be ofinterest to other workers, although nuinv of the problemsraised are not yet solved, notwithstanding tho fact that some1500 cultural experiments have been under observation. Itis rather with a view of stimulating other work upon similarlines than of bringing forward conclusive results, that thispaper is being published.

In the summer of 1907 Mr. E. W. Nelson became associatedwith the investigation, and since that date the experimentalwork has been carried out by him. The discussions in thispaper of a more chemical character, particularly the sectionon alkalinity, are almost entirely the work of Mr. Nelson, andwe have both had throughout the advantage of the constantadvice and help of Mr. D. J. Matthews on all such matters.

I. CULTURE OF PLANKTON DIATOMS}

(A) P r a c t i c a l Cu l tu re Methods .

1. MiquePs Method.—Attention was first directed tothe culture of plankton diatoms; and the methods, whichhad been elaborated by Miquel (11) for fresh-water diatomsand had been found by him to succeed with marine bottomdiatoms, were tried.

364 E. J. ALLEN AND E. W. NELSON.

The essential features of Miquel's method, as applied tcmarine diatoms, are as follows :

Two. solutions are prepared :

Solut ion A. . ,

Magnesium sulphate . . . 1 0 grm.Sodium chloride . . . 10' ,,Sodium sulphateAmmonium nitrate . .Potassium nitrateSodium nitrate .Potassium bromide .Potassium iodideWater . . . .

Solut ion-B.1

Sodium phosphate .Calcium chloride (dry)Hydrochloric acidFerric chloride . . . .Water . . .

Forty drops of solution A and ten to twenty drops of solu-tion B are added to each 1000 c.c. of sea-water, and the sea-water is sterilised by keeping it at 70° C. for about twentyminutes.

According to Miquel it is also necessary to add " organicnutritive material in the form of brau, straw, or filaments of

1 " The preparation of solution A presents no difficulty. Solution Bshould be made up as follows: To the sodium phosphate dissolved in40 c.c. of water are added first the 2 c.c. of hydrochloric acid, then the2 c.c. of hydrous ferric chloride, and then the 4 grm. of calciumchloride dissolved in 40 c.c. of water, taking care to shake the mixture,which I call phospho-ferro-calcic solution. The addition of this lastsolution to the maceration throws down a slight brownish flocculentprecipitate, formed for the most part of ferric oxide, which should becarefully separated from the liquid used for cultivations."

: ';Acid chlorhydrique pur a 22°." Presumably meaning degreesBaume = sp. gr. 1'169.

3 '•' Perchlorure de fer liquide a 45°." As abo\;e = sp. gr. 1:421.

51

220'

o-100

4422

80

)}

})

}}

2 „1 „

»

grm.

c.c.3

c.c.3

c.c.

ARTIFICIAL CULTUBE OP MARINE PLANKTON ORGANISMS. 365

weei ?, such as Zostera. Macerations of these should be madeup i^parately some time before they are required for use,and should be carefully filtered and sterilised. Organicmatter must, however, be used very sparingly, or else putre-faction will set in and the cultures will be irrevocably lost."As a matter of fact we have found that such organic infusionsare unnecessary when dealing with plankton diatoms, and ith .3 not been our practice to employ them (cf., however, p. 392).

Miquel obtained cultures of single species of diatoms eitherby picking out individual diatoms under the microscope andintroducing them into the prepared water, or by adding asmall quantity of water containing a mixture of diatoms andother organisms to some prepared water, and subdividingthis into a number of tubes. If the subdivision has beencarried out sufficiently some of the tubes may contain onekind of diatom only, from which fresh cultures can be made.In this way, by repeated subdivision, cultures can be obtainedwhich, by inoculating fresh quantities of prepared water fromtime to time, may, with care, be maintained indefinitely. Suchcultures, however, must practically always contain bacteria,and Miquel distinguishes them from bacteria-free cultures,which he terms " cultures des diatomees a l'etat de pureteabsolue." The latter he found very difficult to obtain, butthrough repeated washing in sterile water, followed by frac-tional subdivision, he succeeded in getting some in which hecould find no trace of bacteria by ordinary bacteriologicalmethods (Miquel [11], p. 155; cf. also Iiichter [16-18]).-

We propose to call any diatom culture which can becarried on practically indefinitely by inoculating ' freshsupplies of prepared water a " p e r s i s t e n t " culture, theterm " p u r e " culture being reserved for cultures whichcan be proved to contain not more than one organism. We 'are not satisfied that we have yet succeede'd in obtaining1

cultures of the latter kind. For the most part our persistentcultures contain one species of diatom only, and are free from'all organisms larger than small flagellates. .•• • '

In our earlier experiments' with" plankton diatoms we

VOL. 55, PART 2. NEW SERIES. 24


obtained persistent cultures, containing a single species ofdiatom, by both of the methods recommended by Miquel. We,howevei", haye rarely, succeeded by picking out single diatomsor chains of diatoms, for although we have passed the selecteddiatom through several changes of sterilised sea-water, theresulting cultures, even wheu the diatoms have multiplied tosome extent, have generally shown evidence of contaminationby harmful organisms, and have soon died down. Only inone of the earliest experiments, and in one more recent, hascomplete success resulted. In the first case a small chain ofsix or eight frustules of Skeletonema. cos t a tum, pickedout in April, 1905, gave rise to a culture which still persists(November, 1909). Subcultures can still be obtained evenfrom the original flask inoculated in April, 1905. In thesecond case a chain of eight or nine cells of Chsetocerasdensum, picked out from a Petri dish culture, has given aparticularly good growth.

The method of dilution and subdivision has been more suc-cessful, and persistent cultures of a number of species havebeen obtained in this way.

A more ready method of obtaining the cultures is, we havefound, to add one or two drops of plankton to, say, 250 c.c.of a suitable sterile culture medium, and to pour this intoshallow glass dishes (Petri dishes). The dishes should beplaced in a position as free as possible from vibration, andwhere they can be easily examined witli a lens in s i tu . Thetemperature should be kept as constant as possible and thedishes exposed to light of moderate intensity, direct sunlightbeing avoided. In the course of a few days, colonies ofdiatoms of different species will be seen at different spots onthe bottom of the Petri dishes. These can be picked outwith a fine pipette and transferred to flasks containing freshculture medium. The colonies should be picked out from thePetri dishes at as early a stage as possible, because if left toolong some one organism, a diatom or a flagellate, may havemultiplied so rapidly that the whole of the water in-the dishbecomes infected with it. In this case persistent cultures of

ARTIFICIAL CULTURE OF MAE1NE PLANKTON ORGANISMS. 367

a single species would not be'obtained. The above method issimilar to one described by Miquel, excepting that he placedgelatinous silica at the bottom of the vessel. Some verysuccessful persistent cultures were obtained from the follow-ing experiment, which will serve to illustrate the method : Asample of plankton, from a very fine-mesh bolting-silk tow-net,was diluted down with sterile sea-water, until a single dropexamined under a |- in. objective contained on an averageten organisms, chiefly diatoms, of various species. Petridishes (4 in.), containing 60 c.c. each of Miquel sea-water,were then inoculated with various numbers of drops of thediluted plankton. The two dishes, to which two and threedrops respectively were added, gave the best results, andfrom these persistent cultures of several species of diatomswere obtained. Hence we may conclude that the most advan-tageous number of single cells or short chains of cells to beadded to a 4 in. Petri dish, containing 60 c.c. culture medium,is about twenty to thirty.

We have succeeded in obtaining the following species ofplankton diatoms in persistent cultures :

As te r ione l l a japonica Cleve.Biddulphia mobil iensis (Bail.) Gran.Biddulphia regia (M. Schultze).1

Cheetoceras densum Cleve.Chaatoceras decipiens Oleve.Chastoceras constr ictum Gran.Cocconeis scutel lum Bhr. var. minut iss ima Grun.Coscinodiscus excentr icus Bhr.2

Coscinodiscus Granii Gough.Ditylium Brightwel l i i (West) Grun.Lauder ia boreal i s Gran.Ni tzschia closterium W. Sm.Nitzschia closterium W. Sm. forma minut iss ima.Nitzschia ser ia ta Cleve,Ehizosolenia s to l ter fothi i H. Perag.

1 See p. 413.* See p. 412.


Skeletonema costatum (Grev.).S t rep to theca thamensis Shrubs.Thalassiosira decipiens Gran.1

• It is hardly necessary to add that in dealing with thesecultures similar precautions to those used in bacteriologicalwork must be taken, all vessels and instruments being care-fully sterilised before they are brought into contact with theprepared sea-water. The cultures are best made iu small,wide-mouthed flasks, which may be plugged with cotton-wool,or simply covered with watch-glasses. The flasks should bekept at as uniform a temperature as possible (from 12°-17°C.)and should be exposed to strong daylight, direct sunlightbeing avoided. A flask should not be more than half filledwith culture fluid, so that the surface exposed to the air maybe large in proportion to the volume oE fluid. -

Other Methods.—The addition of the solutions devisedby Miquel to sea-water lias in all cases given us good culturesof diatoms, and the method is certain in its action. We have,however, made numerous experiments by treating sea-waterin other ways, with a view to finding ont what are the bestconditions under which plankton diatoms will grow, and ofarriving at some explanation of the action of the differentsalts contained in Miquel's solutions.

2. Houghton Gill 's Method.—H. Houghtou Gill (5),a contemporary of Miquel, made use of a culture medium notesseutially different from that employed by the latter. Unfor-tunately he died before publishing his work, but an accountof his principal results is given by Van Heurck. In his finalmethod Houghton Gill made use of four distinct solutions, asfollows:

Solution 1.

Crystallised sodium phosphate . 2 grm.Calcium chloride' . • . . . 4 „Syrup of iron chloride " . . . 0#5 ,,Strong hydrochloric acid . . 1 „Water 100 „

1 See p. 412. '

ARTIFICIAL CHLTUEB OF MAKINE PLANKTON ORGANISMS. 369

Solut ion 2.

Crystallised magnesium sulphate . 4 grm.Crystallised sodium sulphate . . 4 ,,Crystallised potassium nitrate . ' 4 „Common salt (sodium chloride) . 8 „ 'Potassium bromide . . . . 0'2 ,,Potassium iodide . . . . 0'2,,

\ Water 100 .,

Solution 3.

Crystallised sodium carbonate . 4 grm.Water 100 „

Solut ion 4.

Well-washed, precipitated calciumsilicate • . . . , . . 2 5 grm.

Water 75 ,,

All the salts employed must be chemically pure. Threec.c. of each of these liquids are added to 1000 c.c. of freshwater or sea-water (according to circumstances), and thewhole sterilised. In his earlier work Houghton Gill added asterilised infusion of grass or of diatoms, but it is not clearfrom the accounts whether this was still employed with theabove solutions. We have obtained very good cultures withthe above solutions, to which we did not add any organicinfusion.

3. (A) Modification of Miquel ' s Method : "Mique lSea-water."—Since several of the components in Miquel'sformula for solution A (p. 363) are obviously unnecessarywhen sea-water is being used as the basis of the culturemedium, we adopted for our own work the following modifica-tions : After some preliminary .experiments it was found,as would be expected from the composition of sea-water,that the only salts of value to the medium are the threenitrates KN03, NaN03, NH4N03J and possibly KBr and KLThe omission of the two latter was soon found to make no


difference. Experiments also showed that the formula forsolution A could, without any appreciable detriment toresults, be further simplified to the one salt KN03 or NaNOg,but not NH4NO3. At first the amount of KN03 dissolved in100 c.c. distilled water, used to make the modified solutionA, was the same as the sum of the weights of the nitrates inMiquel's own formula, viz. 5 grm. But later experimentsshowed that a considerably greater concentration of KNO3

than this gave more lasting cultures; the strength of solu-tion and amount to be added to a litre of sea-water iuorder to obtain the best results being 2 c.c. 2 M KNO3.

In the case of solution B no modification has been adopted,but it has been found that small variations in the amounts ofthe ingredients used do not affect the results. A convenientmethod for measuring the right amount of FeCl3 is to warmthe salt until it just melts in its own water of crystallisation,and to pipette out 2 c.c. with a previously warmed pipette.No temperature corrections need be considered. Also 2 c.c.of the ordinary pure concentrated hydrochloric acid at room-temperature will suffice.

Our own formula for preparing Miquel sea-water is now :

Solut ion A.1

te, 20Distilled water, 100Potassium nitrate, 20"2 grm. \ _ 9 •»,]•

J '

Solut ion B.3

Sodium phosphate (Na3HPOjl2H3O) 4 grm.Calcium chloride (CaCf36H3O) . . 4 „Ferric chloride (melted) . . . 2 c.c.Hydrochloric acid (pure concentrated) 2 „Distilled water 80 „

1 This strength has only been used in the most recent experiments;and solution A in this paper, unless otherwise stated, means the 5 %solution of KNO3.

- For preparing this solution see p. 364.

ARTIFICTAI; CULTUBU OF MAIUNE PLANKTON ORGANISMS. 371

To each 1000 c.c. of sea-water1 add 2 c.c. solution A and1 c.c. solution B and sterilise by heating to 70° C. When cool,decant off the clear liquid from the precipitate, which willhave formed when solution B is added to the sea-water.

As a rule our cultures were made in 60 c.c. of this mediumcontained in short-necked, wide-mouthed flasks of 125 c.c.capacity, so that the proportion of air-surface to volume ofliquid was large.

The medium was found to give constantly satisfactoryresults. On inoculation from a persistent culture of suchdiatoms as Tha lass ios i ra , Ske le tonema, Chastoceras,etc., a growth visible to the eye is obtained in about ten days,and then multiplication takes place very l'apidly. In fromthree weeks' to a month's time a very considerable growth willbe seen making a brown, flocculent muss at the bottom andback of the vessel containing the culture.

In from two to four months the culture begins to showsigns of exhaustion and the frustules lose colour, but they donot, as in the case of sterilised outside and tank-water, com-pletely die off. A great number certainly do die, but someremain in a resting condition, and often, after a period of sixmonths or so, these begin to multiply again and the cultureregains its former vigour. This is probably due to the food-stuffs contained in the dead frustules going into solution again,possibly by means of bacterial action. This periodicity incultures is interesting in that it resembles what takes place inthe ocean. Cultures in this medium will persist indefinitely,so far as our experience goes. The oldest culture in ourpossession is one of Ske le tonema cos ta tuni made at thevery commencement of this -work, dated April, 1905. Althoughthe frustules in this culture are quite unrecognisable as anydiatom now, on making a subculture in fresh Miquel a normaland healthy growth can always be obtained.

In old cultures the diatoms are nearly always found to bevery much deformed, and often appear to be only a mass of

1 " Miquel water " seems to succeed equally well, whether it is madeby adding Miquel's solutions to "outside water" or to "tank-water."

372 .. B. J. ALLEN AND 1!. W. NELSON.

broken-down chromatophores. Whether regeneration can besuccessfully obtained from a single chromatophore, whichmust pi^esurnably be contained within a cell-wall of somekind, has not been definitely deeided, but results seem topoint in this direction.

At the start of a culture a tendency to teratological formsis often exhibited, but when the growth is well advanced, theshape of the frustules is usually quite normal.

(B) Eng l i sh C h a n n e l W a t e r ("Outside Water")-—In

a large number of our experiments sea-water brought in fromoutside the Plymouth breakwater, and therefore taken at somedistance from the shore, has been used. This is referred to as"outside water." It has an average salinity of about 35"0 °/o0

and the temperature range for the year is from 8° to lo'° 0.If a sample of "outside water " is inoculated from a persis-

tent culture of a plankton diatom, a small growth is obtainedin from five to Hfteen days. But soon minute bottom forms ofdiatoms, other algse, flagellates, infusoria, etc., appear, and theinoculated species is lost. The total growth of any form isnever large. If the growth of these foreign forms is pre-vented by sterilising the water before inoculation, a consider-ably better growth of the plankton form is obtained. Thewater was, as a rule, sterilised by simply heating to 70° C ,which temperature was found to be quite adequate. Boilinggave equally good results, but the former was preferred, asJess concentration due to evaporation took place. Evenunder these conditions no permanent culture can be obtained,the diatoms soon beginning to lose colour and getting into anexhausted condition. Death takes place in from two to threemonths after the culture has been started, and in many casesconsiderably sooner. Long before inability to start newcultures, the test of death, has been established, the valvesappear on examination quite colourless and practically empty.

Samples of outside water, taken at times when the quantityof plankton was widely different, gave no appreciable varia-tion in the results obtained by culture methods. It is, how-ever, doubtful whether differences in the amounts of growth


in cultures, proportional to, the seasonal variation in thequantity of phytoplankton, would be sufficiently marked tobe appreciable.

The total growth under cultural conditions, although smallfor a culture, is very much greater than any natural planktonthat has come within our experience.

(c) Tank-Water .—"Tank-water ," or water taken fromthe supply of sea-water circulating through the tanks of theAquarium at Plymouth, shows some striking and interestingdifferences from " outside water." This water is pumped upfrom the sea, just below the Laboratory, into two large,covered-in, settling reservoirs, with a .capacity of 50,000gallons each. Pumping is only done at high-water springtides, so as to get the least contaminated water, and no wateris pumped that does not show a specific gravity, measuredwith a hydrometer, of p17"5 = 26'00 (S = 34'PO) or over. Thewater is allowed to settle for about a fortnight before beingused for the general circulation.

The tanks themselves are made of slate and glass, and thepipes which convey the sea-water to them are of vulcanite,so that the water does not come in contact with metal,excepting in Che pumps, which are of cast iron. The twosettling reservoirs are used alternately for about a week each.From time to time, tide and water allowing, waste is re-plenished, and about twice a year each reservoir is emptied,cleaned out, and refilled. The aquarium takes about 20,000gallons, and this is in circulation with one of the two 50,000gallon reservoirs. An estimate of the amount of life in thetanks of the aquarium must be exceedingly rough, but theintensity of the larger forms of life is far greater than any-

.thiug met with in natural waters. About 500 fish and 2000invertebrates, including all forms as large as an A c t i n i ae q u i n a , might be somewhere near the mark. So it will beseen that the accumulation of excretory products must be aby no means negligible factor. The flora of the tanks is veryrestricted, and is chiefly composed of minute forms of algee.Minute naviculoid diatoms, E c t o c a r p u s , C l a d o p h o r a ,

374 E. J. ALLEN AND K. AV. NELSON.

E n t e r o m o r p h a , V a u c h e r i a , and unicellular algae are thecommonest forms. The large seaweeds, such as F u c u s andLan i ina r i a , do not live long if introduced. Planktondiatoms, although a great number must be pumped up whenthe reservoirs are being filled, are not represented.

As in the case of outside water, a sample of " tank-water,"iuoculated from a persistent culture, will only give a verysmall growth, minute forms, etc., soon multiplying andchoking out the plankton form. The ultimate growth ofminute unicellular algas other than diatoms is often con-siderable, and many quite unknown and unidentified formshave been obtained. The total growth of vegetable forms isalways found to be greater than in the case of outside water.

In cultures of plankton diatoms made with sterilised tank-water, a very great improvement on outside sterilised waterwas always noted. The culture of the diatom used to inocu-late this medium persists for a considerable period, and thecoloui of the frustules remains normal for two to three months.

(D) A n i m a l - C h a r c o a l W a t e r . — T h e use of animalcharcoal, as a means of purifying the water in small aquaria,has for a long time been known and practised by those whohave kept such aquaria in inland places. At an early stagein our experiments, water from a tank, which was not ina satisfactory condition, was treated with some powderedanimal charcoal and filtered. It was noticed that a goodgrowth of diatoms took place in this water. Systematic experi-ments with the use of animal charcoal were then commenced,and these have resulted in a method of great value, both forthe culture of diatoms and for the rearing of pelagic larvae.

Animal charcoal is made by the carbonisation of bones,1

1 Analysis of animal charcoal, from Thorpe's ' Dictionary of AppliedChemistry'—

Carbon . . . . . . 10-51Ca., Mg. phosphates, Ca. fluoride, etc. . . 8021Calcium carbonate . . . . 8"30Other mineral matter . . . . 0'98

10000


and is sold in two grades known as "pu re" and "commercial."Our earlier experiments were all made with " p u r e " animalcharcoal, but subsequently the " commei'cial" animal char-coal was largely used, and appears to give equally good, if notbetter results. In both cases the animal charcoal is used in thepowdered form. Animal-charcoal water is prepared as follows:

(1) A quantity of sea-water is sterilised by heating it ina flask to 70° C , at which tempei*ature it should be kept forabout twenty minutes. At the same time some animalcharcoal is heated sufficiently to sterilise but not to burn it,covered over, and allowed to cool. When both are quitecold the charcoal is added to the water (ca. 15 grm. to1000 c.c), and well shaken up in it several times. Afteran interval of half an hour or more the water is filteredthrough fine filter-cloth,1 the whole filter having been firststerilised with boiling sea-water, and is received in a sterileflask. It is then ready for use.

(2) For many experiments, where larger quantities of waterwere required, the sea-water was not sterilised before beingtreated with animal charcoal. In this case, if the first partof the filtrate be rejected, the subsequent water will generallybe practically sterile, and few, if any, extraneous organismswill develop in it.

(3) At a later date an automatic apparatus was set up inthe Plymouth Laboratory, by which very considerable quanti-ties of sea-water could be treated with animal charcoal, andsubsequently filtered through a " Berkefeld" filter; watertreated in this manner we call " Berkefeld water." Tank-water was always used in this apparatus, and was mixed withanimal chai-coal,3 in a clean sulphuric acid carboy, by blowingair through with a pair of bellows. The mixture was allowedto settle for at least twenty-four hours, and then syphoned

1 The filter-cloth used for this purpose is the same as is made for \isein filter presses, and is known as extra-super swansdown. To preventthis becoming clogged another cloth, known as hydraulic twill, was, asa rule, used over it.

" Ca. 300 grin, to 20 litres of water.

376 E. J. ALLEN AND Jbl. W. NELSON.

over into an inverted bell-jar, with a tiibulure at the bottom,into which the Berkefeld candle vvas fitted. Filtration underthese conditions was found to be rather slow, so in order toincrease its rate an apparatus was devised by which thepressure on the filter was considerably augmented.

This apparatus (see'Fig. 1) consists of a glazed earthenware"tobacco jar/ ' with two tubulures, one at the side, the otherat the bottom, and a lid which can be screwed down tightlyon to a rubber washer, by means .of a triangular metalarrangement fitting into grooves above the lid.1 The internal

FIG. 1.—Diagram of apparatus for preparing sterile sea-waterby filtration, without contact with metal.

dimensions of our jars are 1L in. by 6 in., and the diameter ofthe opening at the top is 3 j in. The tubulures are coned,with the smaller diameter external, and make a good fit for aNo. 8 rubber bung. When, setting up this apparatus a bung,through which a short glass tube bent at right angles ispassed, is fitted into the side tubulure. This tube is con-nected, by means of rubber pressure-tubing, to another glass

1 These jars were made to our specification by Messrs. Price, Powell,and Company, Bristol. The clamps usually supplied with such jars arenot strong enough to obtain a tight joint, but these are easily replacedby stronger ones.


tube leading down from the bottom of a small inverted bell-jar, placed some height above (in our case 14 ft., which givesa pressure of ca. 6 lb. to the square inch inside the jar). Ascrew pinch-cock on this connection serves as a tap. Thecarboy containing the treated water stands just above thebell-jar, and is fitted with a tightly fitting rubber bung,tlmragh which two tubes pass. One is an ordinary syphon,the Other the only air-inlet into the carboy. This latter auto-matically keeps the level of the water in the bell-jar constant,by closing the air-inlet as soon as the water covers the endof the tube. When filtering water the modus ope rand i isas follows : The cai-boy is filled with tank water, treated, andallowed to settle as before. The Berkefeld candle,1 bung,delivery tube, and connections (see fig. 1) are sterilised byboiling for half an hour, and fitted into place from within.(The delivery tube is shaped so that any drops of water,accidentally running down outside it, do not enter the vesselreceiving the filtrate; and tlie jar should be large enough toallow the hand to fit the filter into place without muchtrouble.) The pinch-cock is closed, and the syphon from thecarboy started, which will automatically stop if the bung hasbeen properly fitted. This should be watched to avoid acci-dents. The pinch-cock is then opened until the water risesin the jar well above the top of the candle,-but still leavingsome air-space. The lid can now be fitted into place andscrewed down. The tightness of this joint can be tested bypouring a little water' into the> crack round the lid, andobserving if any bubbles are formed when the pinch-cock isopened. If all is right, no bubbles will be seen, and a goodstream of water will flow out from the delivery tube. Ourapparatus will filter about 20 litres an hour, and the' filtrateis exceptionally bright and clear. The candle should besterilised every three or four days that'the!apparatus is in'use to avoid indirect contamination by growths of organismsthrough the substance of the filter.3 The water while passing

1 No. 5 porcelain mount, length 8 in., diameter 2 in.2 See Bulloch and Craw, ' Jonrn. of Hygiene,' vi, No. 3 (1906), p. 409.

378 E. J. ALLEN AND "E. W. NELSON.

through this apparatus only comes into contact with glass,earthenware, and rubber, the use of metal having been pur-posely avoided.

(E) Pe rox ide of Hydrogen Water .—As it seemedprobable that the action of animal charcoal was due to contactoxidation with the oxygen occluded in the charcoal, expertments were made to determine whether a similar effect couldbe produced by the use of hydrogen peroxide (H3O2). Thiswas used in two ways. In the first method a sufficient quantityof H3O3 was added to the sea-water to ensure completesterilisation (1 c.c. of H3O3 of twenty vols. strength per 1000c.c. of tank-water was found to be satisfactory), and theexcess of H3O3 was decomposed by adding manganese dioxide.The water was then filtered through filter-cloth, and thefiltrate appeared to remain quite sterile. Good cultures ofChastoceras cons t r i c tum, Biddulph ia mobi l iensis ,and Ske le tonema cos ta tum were made iu tliis water,which seemed to be as good as water treated by the animalcharcoal method.

The second way of using the peroxide of hydrogen was tostart with water sterilised by heating to 70° C. and to add tothis H3Oo, in small quantities at a time, until its presencecould just be detected on testing the sea-water with perman-ganate of potash. In these circumstances, the first amountsof H003 are decomposed in the oxidation of organic substancesin the water, and a very slight excess of H3O3 persists. Fortank-water 1 c,c. of one vol. H3O2 per 1000 c.c. was found togive the best general effect. Cultures grown in waterprepared in this way developed satisfactorily, being practi-cally equal to those made in animal-cliarcoal water, but theybecame exhausted rather quickly.

The treatment of aquarium water with ozone was also tried,as this seems to offer a possibility of treating large quantitiesof water,1 such as the whole bulk of water in an aquarium

1 The use of ozonised air for the purification of fresh water for townwater supplies has been adopted in some localities. (See Bridge, J. H.,paper read before Franklin Institute, reprinted in 'English Mechanic,'1907, pp. 369 and 892.)

ARTIFICIAL CULTURE OF MARINE PLANKTON OEGANISSIS. 379

circulation, without veiy considerable expense. Experimentsou a small scale, which we were able to make, unfortunatelyonly with imperfect apparatus, showed that water treated withozonised oxygen gave distinctly better cultures than untreatedwater. Although the sea-water was not absolutely sterilisedby the treatment to which we actually subjected it, a sampleof water which was visibly clouded with bacteria becamequite clear and bright.

(F) Cul tu res in these Media.—In order to make clearthe different results which are obtained by using thesedifferent waters, we will describe the probable result whichwould be got from a series of flasks set up with the following

. media, and each inoculated with a persistent culture of atrue plankton diatom, such as Tha la s s io s i r a , S k e l e t o -nema, or Chastoceras.

A. " Outside water" untreated.Small growth in from five to fifteen days, almost

immediately swamped by growths of foreign forms ;the latter, however, will never be large.

B. Ditto, sterilised.Slightly larger growth, very soon becoming ex-

hausted.C. " Tank-water " untreated.

Same result as in A, but growths will be much largerand healthier, and will last longer.

D. "Tank-water" sterilised.A fair growth of the inoculated species, but the total

growth will not be as great as in c; the diatoms willretain their normal appearance for some time.

E. " Outside water" + Miquel's solutions A and B, sterilised.Best culture in series, both in quantity and quality.

The diatoms will remain normal and healthy for a.very long period.

F. "Outside water" sterilised and treated with animal.charcoal. • .

Fair growth, especially at first; diatoms will soon gi'owpale and become exhausted ; better than D.


G. <fTank water" sterilised and treated with animalcharcoal.

As F, only growth will be slightly greater and willlast considerably longer. Third best in series.

H. "Tank-water" treated with animal charcoal and filteredthrough Berkefeld filter.

This will usually be the second best culture in theseries, but the difference between this and G willonly be slight.

K. "Outside water" treated with H3O2.This will most resemble F, but will not be quite so

good.L. " Tank-water " treated with HoO2.

A distinct improvement over K. This medium israther variable, and in some cases the growth,obtained has been quite equal to F, if not better.

B. Exper iments with a View to Dete rmin ing theCondi t ions which under l ie , the SuccessfulCul ture of Diatoms.

The attempt to make cultures of diatoms for use as foodwhen rearing pelagic larvte, led naturally to an effort todetermiue the best culture medium and the most favourableconditions for the rapid and continuous growth of diatoms.Before success can be attained in this direction exact know-ledge as1 to the nature of the essential food-stuffs, and, infact, as to the general physiology of the Diatomaceas, isnecessary.1 Numerous experiments, extending over the lastthree years, have been carried out, with a view to obtainingsuch knowledge, and the results, though still by no meanscomplete or conclusive, are perhaps worth recording.

A great difficulty which has to be met in carrying out suchinvestigations on marine diatoms, is caused by the fact thatwhen sea-water is used as a basis for the culture media, we

1 For general references to literature see " Bibliography," especiallyMiquel (12), Richter (18). '

ARTIFICIAL CULTURE Ob1 MARINE PLANKTON ORGANISMS. 381

are dealiug with a solution of a very complex and veryvariable character , the exact na ture of which it is extremelydifficult to determine. The inosb direct method of research,namely, chemical aualysis, has not proved of much service,owing to the uncertainty, and in many cases impossibility, ofaccurate determinations, in sea-water, of such minute quan-tities of substances as those upon which the growth ofplankton diatoms has been found to depend.

W e have had, therefore, to rely, for the most part , oil thelengthy and tedious process of analysis by " trial and er ror ,"the experiments being largely conducted on lines suggestedby Liebig 's well-known " l a w of miniuiuins " (Pfeffer, vol. i,p. 413): The ideal at which we aim is to find a cul turemedium with artificially prepared sea-water as its basis, suchtha t the absence, or diminution in quant i ty , of any one of itsconst i tuents would have a profound effect upon the growth ofdiatoms in it. Whe the r the conditions regulat ing growth insuch a medium would be a t all comparable to the natura lconditions of life in the sea is a question tha t would have tobe decided by experiment, but in any case this could be madea s tar t ing point for much more definite research than has yetbeen a t tempted. U p to the present t ime we have not, unfor-tunately, succeeded in finding such a culture medium.Throughout the work we have had very g rea t difficulty, inspite of much care and many precautions, in obtainingconsistent results. I t may even happen that in two flaskscontaining the same culture medium, inoculated with the sameculture of diatom and s tanding side by side, under exactlyidentical conditions, as far as can be recognised, quitedifferent degrees of growth will be observed. All experimentsmust therefore be frequently repeated before entire confidencecan be felt in any conclusions which they seem to indicate.

I t must be remembered, also, tha t in all the persistentcultures of diatoms that we have used, bacteria have pro-bably been present, and this fact has probably had someinfluence on the result . Unfortunately our a t tempts toobtain absolutely pure cultures have not met with success.

VOL. 55, PAKT 2. NEAV SERIES. 25


Methods.—In carrying out the experiments to be describedin this section the procedure has been as follows: All mediahave been prepared from sterile sea-water, and sterile vesselsand instruments have always been used. The cultures haveusually been made in 60 c.c. of liquid, in short-necked, wide-mouthed flasks of 125 c.c. capacity. When a number ofcultures were to be compared, the flasks were kept standingin a row together in such a way as to keep the physicalconditions as similar as possible. Control cultures in standardmedia were included in each series, so that results fromdifferent series could be compared by reference to thecontrols. The various media were inoculated from a persistentculture of a species of plankton diatom, which in the greatmajority of cases was Tha las s ios i r a dec ip iens (p. 412).When preparing the different media the methods used were,as far as possible, identical, and although only about 60 c.c.was needed for a culture, a litre was made up, so that errorsdue to measuring very minute quantities might be avoided.The media were all freshly prepared for each comparative seriesof cultures, the same sample of sea-water being used, whenthe basis of any two or more was the same. Comparativeestimates of the amount of growth in the different cultureswere made by eye alone. Any difference between amounts ofgrowth that has been described here as appreciable has alwaysbeen accompanied by a marked difference in appearance tothe eye on holding the cultures up to the light. A few dropsfrom each culture were also, from time to time, examined micro-scopically, as a test of the quality aud purity of the growth.

The Sea-water Employed.—The sea-water employed asa basis for the culture media has been either (1) "outsidewater" ur (2) "tank-water." A general description of thesewill be found on pp. 372-374. An accurate chemical analysis ofboth types of water would probably make clear many difficultpoints, but, as already pointed out, no chemical methods ofsufficient delicacy have yet been devised.

We have seen that if we compare "tank-water," i . e . waterfrom the closed circulation of the Plymouth Aquarium, with


off-shore sea-water in situ, a most obvious difference is themuch increased density of the larger forms of animal life in theformer, combined with the almost complete absence of plantlife. Hence the concentration of excretory products in thetank-water must be very much higher than in outside water.Other factors, such as increased bacterial action, artificialaeration, etc., in tank-water, must also be taken into account(cf. Vernon [58], Smith [56]). There seems to be directevidence to show that the concentration of nitrates, possiblydue to the action of nitrifying bacteria on the products olexcretion, such as urea, ammonia, etc., is considerably higherin the tank-water, and the presence of soluble organicmatter in concentrations never met with in the sea, canalmost certainly be assumed. It is probably due to thepresence of these nitrates and soluble organic substances thatsterilised tank-water is a much better medium in which to-grow diatoms than sterilised outside water (see p. 379).

The C o n s t i t u e n t s of Mique l ' s Solut ions .—It hasbeen already stated that no better medium for the culture ofplankton diatoms has been found by us than the solutionsrecommended by Miquel, although these solutions may bemodified and simplified in various ways with equally goodresults. The formulse recommended by Houghton Gill givevery similar cultures. The essential features of Miquel's andHoughton Grill's methods, when adapted to sea-water, are thesame. Miquel's solution A and Gill's solution 2, can both bereplaced by a solution of potassium nitrate (p. 369). Again,Miquel's solution B and Gill's solution 1 only differ in theproportionate amounts in which the various constituents areprescribed. The formulae are :

Miquel's sol. B. H. Gill's sol. 1.NaoHP0.j,12Hs0 . 4 grm. . . 2 grin.CaC]2 . . . 4 „ . 4 „FeCl3 (syrupus) . 2 c.c . . O5 „HOI (concentrated) . 2 „ . . 1 „Water . . . 80 „ . . 100 „

Use 1 c.c. per 1000. Use 3 c.c. per 1000.

384 E. J. ALLEN AND E. AV. NELSON.

The proportionate amounts added to equal volumes of sea-water are :

Miquel's sol. B. H. Gill's sol. 1.NagHPO4 . . . 10 . . . 1 2CaCl3 . . . . 10 . . . 2 4FeOls . . . . 5 . . . 3HC1 . . . . 5 . . . 6

Since cultures cnn be obtained with no appreciable differenceby using media prepared by adding either of these solutions,together with Miquel's solution A, to sea-water, a con-siderable latitude in the proportions of the salts present istolerated.

We must now consider what is the ro le of the variousconstituents in Miquel sea-water. The part played by anysalt of a culture medium may be considered as being either,firstly, "nutritive," or secondly, "protective."1 Under thefirst heading, any direct addition of food material must beincluded; under the second, any removal or neutralisation ofharmful substances, such as toxins and possibly bacteria, andany more remote effects, which, although influencing growth,do not directly enter into the metabolism of the plant.

Our experiments have proved that solution A can bereduced to a simple solution of potassium nitrate2 withoutdetriment (cf. p. 369), and that the amount of growth is,within limits, roughly proportional to the amount of KN03

added, as the following experiment shows :—Inoculated from persistent culture of Tha lass ios i r a

d e c i p i e n s:A. Normal Miquel sea-water.

Growth as usual.B. Ditto, biit only half amount of solution A.

1 Loeb, ' The Dynamics of Living Matter,' New York, 1906, p. 77.2 For the sake of convenience the expression solution A will be used

throughout the rest of this paper to indicate a simple solution of potas-sium nitrate (5 per cent.), and solution B to indicate Miquel's phospho-fem-calcic solution. Unless otherwise stated the amounts of eachadded to 1000 c.c. sea-water will be normal, i. e. 2 c.c. solution A and1 c.c solution B.

ABTinCIAL OUI.TUUE 01' MA1UNK PLANKTON ORGANISMS. 385

Good growth at first, but exhausted sooner than A.c. Ditto, but two and a half times amount of solution A.

Was slower than either A OP B at start, but after-wards was better than A or B, and lasted longer.

D. Ditto, but five times amount of solution A.As c, but in greater degree.

Considering the nature of the substance added, and itsalready" well-known action in plant metabolism, these results,coupled with the fact that exhausted cultures can often beregenerated by the simple addition of nitrates (see below, p.390), are quite consistent with the assumption that solutionA is simply nutritive in action. The concentration of nitratesin natural sea-water is so low (Brandt [47]) that the amountavailable in u culture of untreated water very soon becomescompletely exhausted, and it is this deficiency that solution Aprobably corrects.

Considering now the action of solution B, it must first beobserved that increased concentration of nitrates alone willnot explain the whole action of Miquel's solutions, for noincrease in growth is obtained when nitrates or solution Aonly are added to sea-water. To illustrate this point anaccount of an actual experiment may be given :—

Inoculated with T h a l a s s i o s i r a d e c i p i e n s :A. Normal Miquel sea-water.

Good strong culture, in every way. normal.B. Outside water sterilised.

Small growth at first, very soon exhausted.c. Ditto + solution A.

No improvement over B.D. Ditto 4- solution B.

Pair growth. Great improvement on B and o, butexhausted considerably before A.

E. Tank-water sterilised.Appreciably better than B, but growth not large.

F. Ditto + solution A.Not even as good as E.

G. Ditto + solution B.

3.86 J5. .7. ALLEN" AND ]<!. W. NELSON.

Next best in series to A ; lasted longer than D, andhad better colour..

To generalise, no improved culture is obtained with solutionA alone, but a fair, though not very lasting, growth can resultfrom using solution B only.

The action of solution B is to some extent obscured by thefact tha.t, when this solution is added to the alkaline sea-water, a precipitate is formed. This precipitate is at firstwhite, but, on heating or standing for some time, it becomesgreenish-yellow. We are indebted to Mr, D. J. Matthews forthe following analyses.

Ten litres of normal Miquel sea-water were prepared, andthe precipitate was collected on a filter-paper, washed, and.dried at 100° C.

Weight of dry precipitate from 10 litres = 0'2949 grm.

Analysis of Dry P rec ip i t a t e .

P3O5 26-36 per cent.Fe3O, 41-31CaO 7-63HnO . . . . . 24-86

100-16Or the precipitate from 1 litre of normal Miquel sea-water

contains—P2O5 . . . . . . -00777 grai .Fe2O3 . . . . . . -01218 „CaO -00225 „

An analysis of 1 c.c. Miquel solution B, the amount addedto 1 litre Miquel sea-water, gave—

P3O5 . . . . . . -00825 „Fe3Os . . . . . . -0105 „CaO . . . . . . ' . -0145 „

Comparing these figures it seems probable that , when addedto sea-water, all the iron in solution B is precipitated, anda certain amount also of the phosphate and calcium. The


additive effect on the sea-water is, therefore, a slightly in-creased concentration of phosphate and calcium.

An analysis of a sample of tank-water for phosphorus,before and after treatment with solution B (1 c.c. per 1000),gave the following figures :• Tank-water -5 mgrm. P per litre = '00163 grin. P3O5.

Tank-water + solution B (without precipitate) 1"5 mgrrn. Pper litre = "00488 grm. P2O5.

• It will be noticed that the figures from the differentanalyses do not agree very well. This is probably due tothe fact that different samples were used for analysis in eachcase, and also to the fact that the solutions were made up inthe ordinaiy way, without any special precautions, volumes, forinstance, being measured in cylindrical glasses, pipettes, etc.

Cultures were tried in sea-water containing the normalamount of solution A, plus the normal constituents of solutionB, less all the iron and less the amount of phosphate that wouldcombine with the iron to form basic ferric phosphate (PJOJ2Pe3O312H2O). This solution should have very neai'ly the samechemical composition as normal Miquel sea-water from whichthe precipitate has been removed. Successful cultures couldnot, however, be obtained in it. Neither could cultures begrown in sea-water to which had been added the normalamount of solution A and 1 mgrm. P (as sodium phosphate)per litre.

To ascertain the effects of the different constituents ofsolution B, experiments were carried out with separate solu-tions of these constituents, each of the same strength, as inMiquel's formula. Different combinations of these solutionswere added, together with solution A, to sterilised sea-water,and the resulting media were inoculated in the usual way. Itwas found necessary to repeat these experiments a greatnumber of times, as the results obtained were rather contra-dictory. To illustrate the methods used a list of the differentmedia, and notes of the cultures obtained in them, are givenbelow. These media were inoculated from cultures ofTha la s s ios i r a dec ip i ens , and the cultures were kept

388 E. J. ALT/UN AND E. W. NELSON.

under observation for at least four months. Series weremade as uniformly as possible, and controls in standardmedia were included in each. The strength of the varioussolutions used in these experiments was the same as inMiquel's formula.

A. Outside water + solution A + solution B (normal Miquelsea-water.

First control.s. Outside water •+• solution A + NaoHPO,t solution 4-

FeCl3 solution + CaC]3 solution.Second control.

Good normal cultures were always obtained in these two

controls.. C. Outside water + solution A + NaoHPO.j solution.

A very uncei'tain medium. Sometimes no growth hasbeen recorded, and at other times a fair growthresults, but these cultures are never equal to normalMiquel.

D. Outside water + solution A + FeCl3 solution.Occasionally a very small growth has been obtained,

but at the best it is very poor.E. Outside water + solution A + Ca013 solution.

About equal to D.F. Outside water + solution A + Na2HPO4 solution +

FeCl3 solution.Uncertain as C. No cultures have been obtained equal

to the best in' c.G. Outside water + solution A + Na3HPO.t solution + CaCl3

solution.Some cultures very nearly equal to the controls have

been obtained in this medium.H. Outside water + solution A + FeCI3 solution + CaCL

solution. sPoor, about equal to D.

Analysing the above results we see that—(1) None of these modifications of solution B give results

equal to solution B itself.

ARTIFICIAL CULTURE OF MARINE PLANKTON OKGANISJIS. 389

(2) The best result is obtained from the combination ofthe phosphate and calcium chloride solutions.

(8) Of the solutions used singly the phosphate is thobest, the iron and calcium chloride being about equal.

(4) The addition of FeCl3 to Na2HPO4, or the addition ofCaCIo to FeCl3, does not improve the medium to any extent.

Experiments were also made to determine whether theprecipitate thrown down in sea-water by Miquel's solution B,itself had any influence on culture media. A quantity of thisprecipitate was prepared, filtered off, and then added tooutside sea-water + solution A (nitrates). A small growthwas obtained, which was a distinct, improvement on thecontrol without the precipitate, but exhaustion soon set in.

Further discussion of the mode of action of solution B,and as to whether that action is purely nutritive, or partlynutritive and partly protective, is better postponed until alater section, after the action of animal charcoal and othersubstances has been considered (see p. 405).

Animal Charcoa l and P e r o x i d e of Hydrogen.—'Themost successful culture medium for plankton diatoms, nextto Miquel sea-water, is that prepared from animal charcoal(cf. p. 379). Animal charcoal water gives at first almostas good cultures of plankton diatoms as Miquel sea-water,but the tendency to paleness and exhaustion appears muchsooner. The best cultures were obtained in "Berkefeldwater," that is, tank-water from the Plymouth Aquariumtreated with powdered commercial animal charcoal and filteredthrough a Berkefeld filter. Tank-water as a basis for animalcharcoal water is very much better than outside water,probably on account of the higher concentration of nitrates,etc.

There is a very striking resemblance between the effect ofanimal charcoal and of Miquel's solution B upon sea-waterused for diatom cultures, and the growths obtained by usingtank-water + solution B and tank animal-charcoal water arevery similar in character. If Miquel's solution A is added toanimal-charcoal water there is a great improvement, both in

390 E. ,T. ALLEN AND K. W. NELSON.

the colour and quantity of diatom growth, and in the case ofTha las s ios i r a dec ip iens the chains are long and wellformed. With animal-charcoal water + solution B, on theother hand, practically no growth was obtained.

It is possible that a certain amount of phosphate, audperhaps of calcium, from the animal charcoal, goes intosolution and serves as a " nutritive " material for the diatoms.But we are inclined to think that its chief action is " protec-tive," and due to its power of occluding gases, such gasesbeing in a state of higher chemical activity than under-normal conditions.1

As was explained in a previous section (p. 378), thepossibility that the action of animal charcoal might havesome sort of effect comparable to oxidation, led us to experi-ment with hydrogen peroxide. Fair growths of diatom couldbe obtained in sea-water prepared in the manner described,but they always showed a tendency to rather rapid exhaustion.As in the case of animal-charcoal water, tank-water proveda much, better basis for treatment with HoO2 than outsidewater.

Reviv ing Exhaus t ed Cultures.—Several experimentswere carried out with water from old, exhausted cultures.The sediment was filtered off, the filtrate was sterilised byheat, and then treated by various methods.

In one typical experiment the following was the result:—Water from an exhausted culture of Ske le tonema

cos t a t um in Miquel sea-water, reinoculated with the samediatom :

A. Filtered and sterilised.No growth obtained.

B. Ditto + solution A (nitrates only).G-ood culture, but did not last very long; further

addition of nitrates made no improvement.c. Ditto + solution B.

1 Against this view would seem to be the fact that when powderedcocoa-nut charcoal, which has a still higher power of occluding gases,was used in place of animal charcoal, very poor cultures were obtained.


No growth.D. Ditto + solution A + solution B.

Very good growth, lasting considerably longerthan B.

E. Ditto + animal charcoal.No growth.

Exhausted cultures in animal charcoal water gave the samegeneral results on treatment and reinocnlation. In an oldculture of B iddu lph ia mobi l iensis in outside water +solution B only, which was in a very exhausted condition(nine months old), the addition of KNO3 gave a very rapidregeneration, and the diatoms became of normal colour andform. This renewed growth, however, did not last very long,and a further addition of KNO3 did not give any result. Theaddition of sodium pliosphate also failed to stimulate growth.The same rapid regenei'ation, on the addition of potassiumnitrate, has been obtained with almost every medium, but asecond attempt has always failed.

Silica.—A very noticeable character of the true planktonspecies of marine diatoms is that their skeletons are verymarkedly less siliceoiis than the great majority of other forms.Their valves are only feebly marked, if at all, and they willnot stand the vigorous treatment of cleaning with acids andheat that is commonly used in the case of fresh-water diatoms.In cultural forms this absence oE silica is still more obvious,imd no marking can usually be seen on even those forms,which, under natural conditions, are the most siliceous, e . g .Ooscinodiscus exceu t r i cus . Deformed and distortedfrustules are the rule in certain stages of growth in ourcultures, and it is often very hard to make out more than thethinnest coating of silica. It is quite probable that thisdeformity can be accounted for simply by the absence of astrong siliceous skeleton. As a rule, the more rapid thegrowth the more teratological forms will be found. Inuntreated outside water little deformity will take place, butin normal Miquel, where very rapid growth takes place, thediatoms may assume almost any conceivable shape. The

392 K. J. ALL UN AND K. W. NJSLSON.

form of the frustules tends to cotne back to the normal again,when the culture is well started, and in old stages themajority will be perfectly formed, although small and pale.I t was found that the addition of silica (in early experimentsas fragments of potassium silicate) was, as far as could be•judged, i mutate rial, which fact led to the conclusion that asufficiency dissolved out from the glass flasks in which thecultures were kept. During rapid growth, it is possible thatthe silica does not dissolve out fast enough to supply thedemand, although it is also possible that diatoms, during rapiddivision, cannot absorb silica and form a perfect skeleton,even when the supply is abundant. Richter (18) has provedthe necessity of either CaSi3O5 or K3Si205 for the growth ofN i t z s c h i a pa le a, grown in pure cultures. We tried theaddition of silica, in various forms, and in one instance, in aculture of Oosc inod i scus e x c e n t r i c u s , to which a littleprecipitated calcium silicate had been added, the uniformityand markings of the valves were much more regular than inthe control. The presence of a trace of pure, dialysed silicaalso, in one experiment, gave an improved regularity of form,but the quantity or rapidity of growth did not seem to beaffected. No sign of regeneration could be obtained inexhausted cultures by the addition of silica.

O r g a n i c Infusions.—Miqnel recommends the use inculture media of infusions of organic substances, such asbran, straw, diatom broth, etc., in addition to the saline solu-tion. He does not make it quite clear if he ever dispensedwith them at all. In his general directions he certainlystates that the addition of both saline and organic nutrientmaterial is necessary. As would be expected from the generalmetabolism of plants, the saline constituents are sufficient forgrowth. At the same time, excellent cultures have beenobtained from dilute organic infusions, both with and withoutthe addition of Miqnel's solutions A and B. About a squareinch of Ulva was boiled in 600 c.c.of sea-water for half-an-hour,cooled, and filtered. In this medium an excellent growth ofC o s c i n o d i s c u s e x c e n t r i c n s in one case, and B i d d u l p h i a


mobi l i ens i s in another, was obtained, the growth lastingfor some considerable time.

Infusions, made in the same way from a small piece of freshfish, gave the same results, and although growth was ratherslower at first, the final result was, if anything, slightlybetter. As Miquel points out, these infusions must be madevery dilute, otherwise growths of bacteria, moulds, etc., willcompletely swamp the diatoms. Karsten (7), in some interest-ing experiments, showed that N i t z s c h i a pa lea (Kutz)W. Sm. could be made to alter completely its mode o£ nutri-tion. On placing this diatom in organic nutrient solutions,it lost all chlorophyll and became colourless, but in salinemedia the clilorophyll would not regenerate, and the nutritionchange back from heterotrophic to antotrophic.1

Oi: course, with our infusions, it cannot be said that thediatoms were necessarily feeding on dissolved organicmaterial, as some necessary, saline, nutritive materials couldhave dissolved out from the weed or Hsh. IE the former isthe case, it might explain the superiority of tank-water overoutside water, since the tank-water must contain a muchhigher percentage of organic substances in solution. If analternative mode of nutrition, autotrophic or mixotrophic,could be proved, especially in the case of the "bo t tom"forms of diatoms, a great many phenomena could be ex-plained, bnt the evidence is as yet far too slight to warrantany such assumption.

A r t i f i c i a l Sea-water .—As we have explained in aprevious section, the ideal aimed at in this part of our workhas been to obtain strong growths of Diatomacese in purelyartificially prepared solutions of simple salts. If this end couldbe satisfactorily attained the difficulties due to the unknownand variable composition of natural sea-water at once dis-appear. According to van 't Hoff (35) sea-water is a solutioncontaining salts in the following molecular concentrations :NaCl 100-0, KOI 2-2, MgCl3 7'8,MgSO,13-8, CaCl31-0 (varies).

1 Of. Zumstein, '.Ztir Morphologie u. Physiologie d. Euglenagraoilis,' Leipzig, 1899.

3 9 4 15. J. ALLEN AND B. AV. NELSON.

Using these molecular concentrations, a sea-water of anydesired salinity can be prepared. The chlorine content ofaverage Atlantic water is about Cl = 19'4, and samples ofartificial sea-water were prepared with the same chlorinevalue, thus :

NaCl 26-75KOI -75MgCl, . . . . . . . 8-42Ca013" -51MgSOj, 2-1Double distilled water . . . 906-47

1000-00

To make this solution comparable to natural sea-water, the" alkalinity" must be raised by the addition of an alkali suchas Na3COs. After the importance of " alkalinity " as a factorhad come before our notice, 2-4 c.c. M/2 Na3COs was alwaysadded to the above solution in order to make the amount ofbase in equilibrium with C0o equivalent to the usual 40 mgrm.OH°/M.

The only success we attained with artificial sea-water as abasis for culture media was with four isolated cultures in oneof our earlier experiments. Two of these were cultui'es o£Coscinodiscus e x c e n t r i c u s in artificial sea-water +Miquel's solutions A and B. The two cultures were identicalexcept that one was iu an ordioary bohemian glass flask andthe other in a " resistance glass " flask. No difference betweenthese two could be seen. The growth obtained in both was inevery way equal to normal Miquel sea-water, and is still fair,although over two years old. The other two successfulcultures were growths of the same diatom in the. same media,plus a small quantity of weed infusion, made by boiling up asmall piece of Ulva in artificial sea-water. These gave justas good results, but the addition of unknown factors from theweed detracts from their general interest. In spite offrequent attempts, over fifty in number, we have not beenable to repeat this experiment, which may possibly be due to


some accidental impurity in the salts or distilled water fromwhich the successful media were pi'epared.

Alkalinity.—Tornoe (43) and Dittmar (33) were the firstto investigate the fact that sea-water showed on analysis anapparent excess of base over acid, which excess they termed" the alkalinity of sea-water." Dittmar defines the alkalinityof sea-water as " a measure of its potential carbonate oflime," but this definition and his supposition that this excessof base combines directly with dissolved CO3 to form car-bonates and, further, but only in very small proportion, bicar-bonates, is liable to give a quite erroneous idea of the state ofequilibrium actually occurring1 in the ocean. For, as Fox (34)has shown, " sea-water reacts in s i tu very nearly neutral, andactually just slightly more acid than distilled water." Thisis due to the fact that sea-water always contains a consider-able quantity of dissolved CO3.

If a salt solution with n e u t r a l reaction, that is, containingH" and OH1 ions in concentrations equal to one another andthe same as for pure water, be exposed to an atmosphere con-taining CO,, a definite amount, depending on pressure, tem-perature, and salinity, would go into solution. This COowould combine with water and form the very weak acidH2CO3, which would ionise with the formation of free H" ions,thus :

H3COS ~- H ' ^

(HC0'3 Z- H ' + CO"8)The second stage of dissociation is so small as to be

negligible. The concentration of H- being now increasedand OH1 decreased, the solution would have an acid reaction.The actual amount of CO3 thus dissolved would always besmall; for instance, a salt solution of strength Cl = 2O00(average Atlantic water Cl = 19-4) will at 10° C. dissolveabout "3 c.c. CO3 per litre from an atmosphere containing3 %oo CO3 (about normal). But the ocean is found to containvery much greater quantities than this, 60 c.c. or 200 timesthis amount being a not unusual figure for the total CO.The difference between this amount and the "3 c.c. or so dis-

396 HI. J. ALLEN AND E, AV. NELSON.

solved by the neutral salt solution, as above, is kept inequilibrium with the 3 7OOO GO3 °^ * n e atmosphere by theamount oE " excess"' base equivalent to the amount of acidneutralised when au acid such as HC1 is added to sea-waterin excess. If a solution identical with sea-water but abso-lutely free from CO2 (a practical chemical impossibility) couldbe obtained, then there would be present an excess of baseover acid, and consequently an excess of OH1 ions over H.ions, and an alkaline reaction. On exposing such a solutionto the atmosphere, CO3 would go into solution, ionise^ and theH" ions thus set free would react with the OH1 ions, due tothe excess base, to form water. And this reaction wouldcontinue to take place, on more CO3 dissolving, until all theexcess OH1 ions were neutralised, at which point the solutionwould react neutral. Now, as before with the neutral saltsolution, a further small amount of CO3 would go into solu-tion, bringing the solution into equilibrium with the atmos-phere, and the excess H" ious thus formed would give anacid reaction. The final result would be a solution exactlvidentical with natural sea-water. The total CO2 found in sea-water can be considered as existing in two parts: the largerpart in equilibrium with free base, its amount depending ontemperature, pressure, and alkalinity; the smaller in equili-brium withthe partial pressure of CO3 in the atmosphere, itsamount depending on temperature, pressure, and salinity.Although sea-water in s i t u has an acid reaction,it still main-taius the property of being able to neutralise a certain amountof any acid stronger than HoC03, that is, any acid which, ondissociation, forms a higher concentration of H" ions ; for thestronger acid will turn out the H3CO3 in equilibrium with the" excess base " and CO3 will be evolved.

In consideration of these points, a less confusing definitionof the " a l k a l i n i t y of s e a - w a t e r " would perhaps be am e a s u r e of i t s p o t e n t i a l c a p a b i l i t y of n e u t r a l i s i n g as t r o n g acid 1 w i th t h e e v o l u t i o n of CO3. This can beconveniently expressed, as is usual, in mgrm. OH °/00.

1 Such as HC1, with a high degree of ionization.

ARTIFICIAL CULTURE OF MARINE PLANKTON- ORGANISMS. 397

Some of our earlier experiments seemed to show that"alkalinity" was a factor of considerable importance for thesuccessful growth of cultures of plankton diatoms ; so anattempt was made to analyse the various samples of waterboth before and after treatment as culture media. Themethod adopted was a modification of that used by Tornoeand Dittmar. Solutions of NaOH and H3SO4 of strengthN/50, by intention, were made up and stored in five-litre"aspirator" bottles. Two accurately graduated burettesstanding side by side were connected to these by tubes, sothat they could be readily filled by gravity. All air inletsto burettes and stock bottles were fitted with tubes of sodalime. A standard solution of Na2CO3 of exactly knownalkalinity, approximately that of average sea-water (40'00mgrm. OH % 0 ) , was prepared by diluting down from a N/1(>

solution, all operations being performed by weighing. Thesestandards were stored in stoppered bottles of the fairlyinsoluble dark green glass, but those that had been kept forany length of time were not trusted, fresh standards beingprepared. On analysis these standards agreed with oneanother to well within "1 mgrm. OH °/00. The water used fordiluting the standards was distilled water from the laboratorystill, re-distilled in all-glass apparatus with potassium bichro-mate and sulphuric acid.

When carrying out an analysis, equal volumes (about 100c.c.) of sample and standard were measured out into Jenaglass Erlenmeyer flasks with a Knudsen automatic pipette.The specific gravity of each was determined by weighing in a25 c.c. pyknometer. Sample and standard were then titratedby running iu acid from the burette and back titrating withalkali, using a 1 per cent, alcoholic solution of aurine as anindicator and keeping the liquid boiling. The acid to alkaliequivalent was determined by titrating a pipetteful of doubledistilled water in the same manner. The mean of at least fourreadings was always used. Let N and n be number of burettedivisions of alkali equivalent to standard and sample respec-tively, and D and d their density at the time of pipetting out:

VOL. 5 5 , PART 2. NEW SEEIES. 26

398 B. J. ALLEN AND E. W. NELSON.

Tlien if A is the alkalinity of the standard and X the requiredalkalinity of sample:

Since all operations were carried out at the same roomtemperature, no corrections for temperature are necessary.

In spite of the greatest care consistent results could not beobtained by this method of analysis, A sample analysedagainst the same standard would sometimes give resultsvarying as much as O5 mgrm. and occasionally I/O mgrm.OH °/00. The work on indicators by Salm (42) and itsapplication to this question has only recently come to ournotice, and it is our intention to experiment on this in futureresearch. The figui-es quoted below as the results of analyseshave been rounded off as whole numbers, since their interestlies in their comparative rather than their absolute value.For convenience they are quoted as " alkalinities," although,we are fully conscious that the methods used do not warrantthis assumption, and that their actual chemical significanceis still obscure.

The mean value for " outside water" was found to befairly constant at 40"0 mgrm. OH °/oo> which figure agreeswith results obtained by others for average ocean water.Samples from the aquarium tanks never gave as high figuresas this, the average being approximately 37"5 mgrm. OH °/oo.From this it seems that the amount of base in equilibriumwith COo iu tank-water is appreciably less than in outsidewater. A series of thirteen samples taken from seven milesbeyond the Eddystone to well inside the Cattewater (aninner tidal harbour near Plymouth) showed a gradual loweringoE the alkalinity from the normal 40, to 38 mgms. OH °/00 asthe water became more estuarine and polluted.

The addition of Miquel's solution B to sea-water was found,on analysis, to reduce the " alkalinity " by an amount equiva-lent to 10 mgrm. OH °/00 or more. The 1 c.c. solutionB added to a litre of sea-water in itself contains a certainamount of free acid, equivalent to less than 4 mgrm. OH °/00.

ARTIJPICfAL CULTURE Of MARINE PLANKTON ORGANISMS. 3 9 9

But this reduction of alkalinity cannot be accounted for bythe addition of free acid alone, because if only one quarter theamount of solution B is added, the alkalinity of the sample .will be found to be, if anything, only very slightly higher.Also, if the various constituents of solution B are added asseparate solutions, thus obviating any addition of free acid, areduction equivalent to about Gmgrrn. 0H°/o ois still obtained.The presence of ferric chloride in solution B gives a possibleexplanation of this phenomenon. If a solution of ferric chlorideis added to a solution of a soluble carbonate, a reaction,which can be expressed by the following equation, takes place:

3 E3CO.i Aq. + Ee3Cl0Aq. = 6 RCl.Aq. + Pe2OsAq. + 3 CO..When the ferric chloride is added to sea-water, the final

result will be that a certain amount of the " excess base,"which was in equilibrium with COa, will then be in equilibriumwith the chlorine, available on the precipitation of hydratedferric oxide, with a consequent liberation of CO3, and areduction in "alkalinity " will, therefore, take place.

An analogy between the actions of MiquePs solution B andnnimal charcoal can be seen in the fact that water treatedwith animal charcoal also shows a reduced " alkalinity," theamount being very variable in different samples.

Sea-water treated with H3O3 also showed a lowering of thealkalinity, but in a much less degree when, as usual, minimalquantities were used.

Control experiments on double distilled water, which hadbeen treated with these substances, were tried, but greatdifficulty was found in obtaining an end point with theindicator. As far as could be judged, distilled water treatedwith solution B (quantities as with sea-water) showed anegative " alkalinity/' equivalent to about 8 mgrni. 0H°/oo,and in the case of animal charcoal a positive alkalinityequivalent to 6 mgrm. 0H°/00, but the colour change was soslow that these results are only the roughest estimates. Thepossibility that the above results are due to some effect onthe indicator, which entirely cloaks the true alkalinity, must•always be taken into consideration.

4 0 0 E. J. ALLEN AND M. W. NELSON.

Before any attempts at analysis had been made, the proba-bility that considerable differences might be found in thealkalinity of the various media had presented itself. Im-provement in the growth of diatom cultures was found toresult from the purely empirical addition of NaHC03, thisresult being most marked in normal Miquel sea-water, outsidewater + solution B only, and Berkefeld water. No growthcould be obtained in either "tank-water" or Miquel sea-water to which had been added 1 c.c. HC1 (pure, concentrated)per litre, but on again raising the alkalinity of the latterby the addition of NaH00s or KOH, good normal growthsresulted. Richter (18) and H. Gill (5), also, both statethat a weak alkaline reaction is necessary for the growth ofdiatoms.

In our most recent experiments, all the media have beenanalysed for alkalinity, and those given in detail belowillustrate the importance of determining this factor. Culturesof Tha lass ios i ra dec ip iens were made in the followingmedia:

A. Tank-water. Control.Poor growth, hardly normal. Later, good growth of

minute forms, etc.B. Tank-water, treated with cold commercial animal char-

coal, and filtered.Very good growth indeed.

c. Tank-water treated with cold, pure animal charcoal, andfiltered. :

Very poor growth, comparable to A without minuteforms.

D. Tank-water treated with pux-e animal charcoal as:in c,but the animal charcoal was added red-hot.

Fait' growth, much superior to c, but not up to B.The sample of pure animal charcoal used here had been

•previously found to give very poor results, and it was alsoquite contrary to our experience that any improvement ingrowth should be obtained by adding it hot. But if weexamine the results of analysis of these media for alkalinity


a probable explanation presents itself. The following figuresare only comparative :

A. 38 ing'rm. OH°/ t o (used as standard).E. 37 ,, „ (higher than usual).c. ]6 ,, „ (very low indeed).D. 34 „ „

It will be seen that the amount of growth in each treatedsample follows the alkalinity very closely.

Solutions of Na3COa) NaHCO3 and HC1 were made up, so that4 c.c. of anyone contained an amount of acid or alkali equiva-lent to 10 rngrm. OH. From these a series of normal Miquelsea-waters of different alkalinifcies were prepared. Culturesof Tha l a s s io s i r a dec ip iens were grown in these media.

A. Normal Miquel sea-water. Control. A = 32-7 mgrm.

OH %o-Perfectly normal growth.

B. Ditto + 4 c.c. NaoCO3 per litre. A = 41'7 mgrm..OH °/0O ( = + 9-0) .i

No difference between this culture and A.c. Ditto + 8 c.c. Na2CO3 per litre. A = 50-2 mgrm.

OH °/oo (= + 17-5).Best culture in series in quality and quantity.

D. Ditto + 4 c.c. NaHCO3 per litre. A = 42-4 mgrm.0 H ° / o o ( = + 9-7).

Slightly better than control.E. Ditto + 8 c.c. NaHC03 per litre. A = 51-5 lngrni.

O H % o ( = + 18-8). •As D.

i\ Ditto + 4 c.c. HC1 per litre. A = 22-2 mgrm. OH°/00 ( = - 10-5).

Fair growth, but never up to control; exhaustedmuch sooner.

G. Ditto + 8 c.c. HC1 per litre. A = 11-1 mgrm. OH% 0 ( = - 2 1 - 6 ) .

Poorest in series.1 Figures in parentheses are difference in alkalinity from control,

in mgrm. OH %o.


Except in tlie cases where the alkalinity was lowered bythe addition of HCI, the results obtained from this serieswere not up to expectation. Nevertheless the majority showeda distinct improvement from increased "alkalinity/' and inc, where the alkalinity had been raised 17-5 mgrm. OH°/00, this improvement was very marked.

Another point illustrated by cultural experiment is that intwo samples of animal-charcoal water, one with " outside " andthe other with " tank-water " as a basis, the amount of growthin the latter considerably exceeded that in the former, and atthe same time it was found that, with the tank-water, thealkalinity had not been reduced to the same extent as in thecase of the outside water.

How far apparently anomalous results, which have sofrequently occurred in our experimental work, could lieexplained by unforeseen changes in " alkalinity," can only beanswered by future research.

Salinity.—The salinity (or amount of salts dissolved in1000 grm. sea-water) of the outside water used in these experi-ments only varied between small limits, S = 34*5 to 35'5°/oo. The salinity of "tank-water" is also fairly constant,the average being about S = 34"9°/00; water is only pumpedup into the reservoirs at high water, spring tides, and unlessthe salinity on analysis is well above S = 34'5 °/oo no wateris taken. Experiments to show what effect salinity pure andsimple had on the growth of diatoms were undertaken.Samples of sea-water of various salinities were prepared bydiluting down "outside water" with double distilled water,and by concentrating "outside water" by slow evaporation.Two litres of "outside water," S = 34"9, were evaporateddown to the bulk of one litre, giving a 50 "/Q1 concentra-tion. Miquel solutions 4 c.c. A, 2 c.c. B, were now added,and the solution was divided into ten culture vessels, 20c.c. in each. Double distilled water was added, 2 c.c. tothe first, 4 c.c. to the second, 20 c.c. to the last, so that aseries of media were obtained, varying in salinity from

1 i.e. from every 100 c.c. sea-water50 c.c. H2O had been subtracted.


normal to nearly 50°/o concentration, each containing thesame amount of Miquel's nutrient solutions. These wereinoculated from a mixed culture of Ske l e tonema cos ta-tum, Biddulph ia rnobil iensis , and Coscinodiscusexcen t r i cus . A good growth took place in all except thetwo with highest concentration. Of these two, the lastremained practically sterile and the growth in the otherwas very poor. The limit of concentration, therefore, seemsto lie between 35 and 40 °/o. In the same way series oflowered salinities were prepared, and cultures of the samediatoms were grown in these. Dilution up to 100 °/o didnot seem to make any difference at all in the quantityor quality of growth. In a series extending the dilutionto 200°/O) even in the cultures of lowest salinity a fairquantity of growth took place. The range of salinitiescovered by the various series was S = 12 °/00 to S = 60 °/00,and within these limits no effect on growth could be observed,except in the very highest, where a distinct deteriorationwas noted.

An attempt to grow Coscinodiscus e x c e n t r i c u s intap-water + Miquel's solutions was tried, and it was thoughtthat some slight multiplication took place, although it wascertainly not at all considerable. Inoculating a culture ofnormal Miquel sea-water from this after six weeks gave nogrowth.

Light.—Of all the factors controlling the rate of growthof a culture, light seems to be by far the most important. With-out light a culture soon dies off completely, showing markedsigns of malnutrition very soon after having been placed inthe dark, the brown pigment being the first to go and laterthe chlorophyll. A culture (Thalassiosira) placed in thedai'k for five months was found to be completely killed, thediatoms being quite colourless. In cultures kept in bulbousflasks or in any spherical vessel, the strongest and earliestgrowth always takes place at the side of the vessel away fromthe source of light, where the light will be found to be con-centrated owing to the lens effect of a sphere of water. By

404 • • B. J. ALLEN AND E. W. NELSON.

painting a flask black on the outside up to the water-line of themedium, a very marked diminution in the r a t e of growthwas obtained. The total growth was not affected, but dependson the available quantity of food-stuffs present.

Experiments oh the reaction of cultures to different rays ofthe spectruiDj obtained by coloured glass, were ti'ied,- but noresults obtained; Miquel obtained marked results with yellowlight; but in our experiments, with plankton diatoms, satisfac-tory cultures could not be Obtained under these conditions.

Temperature.—'The highest temperature which diatomsand allied forms can stand was about uniform for all thespecies tested, and lay between 35°-40° G. Cultures of thefollowing speeieSj viz. As te r ione l l a japonica^ Ni t z sch iac los ter iuni j minute naviculoid diatom, P leurococcusmu'eosuSj Chi lomonas sp., were slowly heated in a waterbath, and at every rise of 5° C. from 15° C. to 45° C* a fewdrops of the culture were pipetted out and a fresh flaskinoculated; In all the flasks cultures were obtained wherethe heating process had not been carried above 35° Ci, but

• none in those where the temperature had exceeded this.

lit the earlier stages of experimentation the cultures ofdiatoms were kept in various places about the laboratory, andso were under quite different temperature Conditions. Thoseplaced in the warmer situations^ i •. e. near hot-water pipes, asa rule gave the most satisfactoi-y results. In all the later workthe cultures have been kept in one roonij and an attempt hasbeen made to keep the temperature of this room as nearly as pos-sible constant at 15° C. A continuous record of its temperaturehas been kept by means of a recording thermograph, and novery great change of temperature has been noted: Iii a fewisolated cases the temperature has dropped as low as 9° d.,and in hot weather has risen just above 20°0.j but these haveonly been for very short periods, the average temperaturehaving kept remarkably constant. An apparatus in whichflasks could be kept at different uniform temperatures from10° to 25° C.) by means of hot nir> was usedj but no reallysatisfactory result could be obtained. About 17° 0. seemed


to give the maximum growth, and the cultures below thistemperature were usually superior to those above.

G-erieral Conclusions.—The general conclusions to bedrawn from the experiments described in this section, whichwere made with a view to determining the conditions thatunderlie the successful culture of diatoms, may now be dis-cussed. Although the experiments have involved-the makingof some 750 different cultures, our conclusions on many of thequestions raised are still indefinite, and much further workwill be necessary before a satisfactory answer can be givento them.

If we wish to obtain the maximum quantity oi: healthygrowth of a plankton diatom, the diatom must first beobtained as free as possible from all other organisms, if notin a "pure" culture, at least in a "persistent" culture. Allculture media should be sterilised either by heat or filtration,and the experiments should be conducted under sterile condi-tions. Starting with normal sea-water as the basis for theculture medium, it seems to be first necessary to raise theconcentration of the nitrates, and possibly also of the phos-phates, in solution. But this simple addition of nutrientmaterials will not in itself suffice. Some other action, suchas that exerted by Miquel's solution B, by animal charcoal,or by peroxide of hydrogen, seems to be imperative in nearlyevery case. The exact nature of this action we have notbeen able conclusively to determine! If the substances con-tained in solution B were purely nutritive in character, weshould expect that, when alterations in the amounts of thedifferent ingredients were made, or when any one of theingredients was omitted altogether, the differences in thequantity of growth would show a direct relation to the kindof modification introduced. But our usual experience hasbeen that solution B can be modified within certain limits,without producing any appreciable effect upon the resultingcultures) whilst, if these limits are exceeded; there is analmost complete inhibition of growth-. In supplying a neces-sary increase of phosphates, both Miquel's solution B and


animal charcoal may, and probably do, act as " nutritive " sub-stances ; but, since the addition of phosphates alone does notyield cultures comparable with those produced by either ofthem, and since, excepting phosphates, there is no possiblecommon nutritive substance in their composition, we are ledto conclude tliat, iii addition to any nutritive effect, theymust exert some other action. This view is supported by theresults obtained by using H3O2. This substance cannot bedirectly "nutritive," although it may be so indirectly, byoxidising into useful food-material substances which thediatoms are incapable of using in their metabolism, e . g .nitrites into nitrates. The absence of any increase in phos-phates, when using H3O2, may possibly be the reason whybetter results were not obtained with this medium. Theaction, which, in addition to any nutritive value, we mustassume that solution B, animal charcoal, and H2O2 can alleffect, would appear 'to fall into the class of " protective "actions (p. 384). It is quite conceivable that, with differentsamples of sea-water, this "protective" action is not neces-sary in every case, and this would account tor the anomalousresults met with when using sea-water + nitrates + phos-phates only, in which medium sometimes good cultures, butmore often the reverse, are obtained. The effect of Miquel'ssolution B, animal charcoal, and H2O3 on the " alkalinity " ofthe sea-water, also points to some chemical change, whichdoes not directly enter into the metabolism of the plants.

It may be pointed.out that the action of such substances asfinely powdered carbon, and ferric oxide precipitates, havebeen shown to produce a favourable effect on nutrient solu-tions used for the culture of certain higher plants, and it hasbeen suggested that the beneficial action of these substancesis the removal of toxic elements from the media (Breazeale [3]).Such removal of toxins would fall under our definition of"protective" action.

Of nutritive substances, other than those already mentioned,we have still to consider, (1) silica, and (2) dissolved oxygenand carbonic acid. Having regard to the conditions under


which our cultures have been grown, i . e . in glass flasks,the question of silica does not seem to enter into the problemswhich we have discussed. A few words- must, however, besaid as to the dissolved gases. Whipple (62) and Baldwin (44)have drawn attention to the observed relations, which arefound in natural waters, between algal growths and theamounts of dissolved oxygen and carbonic acid. That thesefactors are of great importance cannot be doubted, but in ourcultures it seems reasonable to suppose that the conditions ofsaturation of these gases are the same in all, since series ofcultures in standai'd media, such as Miquel sea-water orBerkefeld water, can be set up with the certainty that, if notevery one, at least a very high percentage, will give normalresults.

Of the purely physical factors, light is by far the mostimportant. Within limits, the rate of growth in a suitablemedium seems to depend directly on the intensity of thelight (Whipple [60]). Absence of light, as would beexpected, soon completely kills the diatoms.

Temperature also seems to affect the rate of growth to acertain extent, but for those temperatures at which we havaexperimented it does not appear to alter the quantity ofgrowth.

Salinity, apart from the quantities of available nutrientmaterials, can be varied within large limits without appreci-able effect on the diatoms.

II. MIXED CULTURES.

In what has been said up to the present, we have beendealing with persistent cultures containing a single species ofdiatom, which are comparatively, if not entirely, free fromadmixture of other organisms. The study of cultures whichcontain a considerable mixture of organisms is not withoutinterest.

A number of experiments have been made on the followinglines : About 10,000 c.c. of water, taken, at some distance


from shore, was placed ia a tall bell-jar fitted with a" plunger," which keeps the water in constant movement(' Jo urn. Mar. Biol. Assoc./ vol. v, p. 176). The water wastreated with Miquel's solutions in normal proportions, and aconsiderable quantity of plankton taken with a fine-meshednet (150 meshes to the inch) was added, say 10 or 20 c.c. ofa moderately rich sample of tow-netting. The experimentswere made during the spring and summer months, and thegeneral cout-se of events has been the same, with a certainamount of difference in detail according to the nature ot theplankton present at the time.

During the first two days the water often became cloudy,owing to the rapid multiplication of small flagellate infusoria,though this was not always the case. Plankton copepods andother animals gradually died off, though some survived for aslong as a week or ten days. The plankton diatoms, on theother hand, generally multiplied rapidly during the earlydays of the experiments, the first to become abundant in thebody of the water being usually Skele tonema costa tum,which at the eud of a week might be so thick that a numberof chains could be seen in every drop of water examined withthe microscope. Along with the Ske l e tonema were foundother plankton diatoms, such as L a u d e r i a boreal is ,Chastoceras (two or three species), B iddu lph ia ruobi-l iensis , Dityliutn Br igh twe l l i i , and in nearly every caseTha la s s io s i r a decipiens . These latter diatoms were pre-sent in moderate numbers ouly, when the Ske le tonema was atits height, butas the Ske le tonema died down they increasedin quantity. At the same time Ni tzsch ia c los te r ium com-menced toappear, both amongst the precipitate on the bottomof the jar and in the general body of the water. Small greenflagellates often began to get numerous also at this stage.The tnie plankton diatoms were at their height about a fort-night after the experiments were started. At this time agreat many diatoms of all kinds were to be found amongstthe precipitate at the bottom of the jar, As te r ione l l aj apon ica and Coscinodiscus excen t r i cus being often


numerous here, During the course of the next week, how-ever, N i t z sch i a c lo s t e r i um rapidly increased in quantity,until not only the sides of the jar were coated with it, but thewhole mass of the water became thick and opaque. By thistime the plankton diatoms had all disappeared, with theexception of those which may survive for a considerableperiod amongst the precipitate at the bottom of the jar.Bottom diatoms (Navicula , etc.) had begun to grow on the

•sides of the jar, and small green and brown algfe (Pleuro-coccus mucosus , E c t o c a r p u s , etc.) also appeared.Infusoria (Kuplotes and other smaller forms) theu becamenumerous, and as the N i t z s c h i a and bottom diatoms in-creased on the "lass, large numbers of Amoebfe made theirappearance among them. The jars continued in this con-dition for many months, the algte becoming more and morepredominant.

From these experiments, as well as from instances of mixedcultures obtained in the course of our attempts to securepersistent cultures of single species of diatoms, it seems usualthat, in a culture obtained by inoculating Miquel sea-waterwith plankton taken freshly from the sea, the true planktondiatoms are the first to develop in considerable numbers.Subsequently bottom diatoms and algas of various kindsbecome abundant, and the true plankton forms die out.

A complete explanation of this sequence of events wouldprobably be of a vei*y complicated character, and we havepractically no evidence from our experiments which bearsvery directly on the question. It would seem, however, thatthe early predominance of the plankton forms in the cultureswould naturally follow from the fact that, in the planktonmaterial used for inoculation, these plankton forms arenumerous, whilst bottom diatoms and spores of algae are rare.The subsequent very great predominance of such a species asN i t z s c h i a c lo s t e r ium may be due simply to a very muchmore rapid growth rate, though it is difficult to avoid theimpression that the organisms, which finally take possessionof the-cultures, are in some way directly inimical to those

410 E. J. ALL15N AND B. W. KELSON.

wliich they supersede, not merely by robbing them of theirfood supply, but perhaps, also, by the production of toxicsubstances. This suggestion does not, however, give anadequate explanation of the essential facts concerning theseorganisms. We have to consider two sets of species—(1) thetrue plankton forms, which flourish in the open sea and canbe grown quite easily in the laboratory, provided the culturesremain pure, and (2) what we may call "aquarium" or"bottom forms," which under experimental conditions invari-ably take possession, when present in mixed cultures, whilstthe plankton forms are killed off. Why is it that, althoughspecies of the second class are always present in smallnumbers in plankton taken from the sea, they are there alto-gether outnumbered by the true plankton forms, whereasunder conditions such as those of our experiments theyinvariably succeed in gaining the upper hand ? What arethe factors which determine the difference in behaviour ofthese two sets of organisms in the sea and in the culturevessels ? The whole question offers a very fruitful field forfurther experiment. The evidence at present available is soslight that further discussion of it here is not likely to be ofmuch service.

The details of two experiments which we have madebearing on the subject of mixed cultures may, however, berecorded.

A flask, containing about 1000 (J.c. of sea-water treatedwith Miquel's solutions, was inoculated with approximatelyequal amounts of certain persistent cultures o$ diatoms, whichwe possessed at the time. The following diatoms were inthis way introduced: Chsetoceras constrictum, Bid-dulphia mobiliensis, Skeletonema costatum, Cos-cinodiscus excentricus, Streptotheca thamensis.The flagellate (Chilomonas sp.) was also introduced, sinceit was present in the culture of Coscinodiscus. The ex-periment was started on August 26th, 1907. On September6th (11 days) Biddulphia, Coscinodiscus and Chseto-ceras were increasing rapidly and were very healthy,


Skeletonenia was not so good, and no Streptotheca wasfound.

On October 2nd (37 days) Biddulphia was numerous andhealthy, Coscinodiscus was healthy but not so numerous,Skeletonenia was poor, and Chastoceras was not seen.Flagellates (Chilomonas) had become very numerous.

On October 31st (66 days) all the diatoms were in verypoor condition, Coscinodiscus being slightly better thanthe others. The flagellates (Chilomonas) were extremelythick, giving the water a deep red colour.

Subsequently a small green alga (Pleurococcusmacosus) appeared, having probably been derived from theCoscinodiscus culture. This increased very greatly inquantity, whilst the flagellates become inconspicuous.

On July 28th, 1909 (1 year 11 months) some Coscino-discus, which were still in a healthy condition, were seen in asample examined from the flask. A great quantity ofPleurococcus, in a healthy condition, was also present, butno other oganisms were noted. On this date a subculturewas made from the flask in normal outside Miquel. Thesubculture gave a considerable growth of Skeletonenia,the cells being, however, of a very abnormal character, and agood many normal and healthy Coscinodiscus were foundin each sample examined. The whole culture was crowded withChilomonas in a very active state, which gave the wholecontents of the flask a deep red-brown colour. Up to August24th the green alga (Pleurococcus) had not become suffi-ciently abundant to be detected by the naked-eye appearanceof the flask, though it could be seen in samples examined withthe microscope.

In another experiment a flask of Miquel sea-water wasinoculated (May 4th, 1908) from two cultures, one containingthe green alga (Pleurococcus mucosus) and the otherThalassiosira decipiens. At first both did well, and onMay 20th (16 days) there was a very good crop both of thediatom and the alga. Gradually, however, the alga becamepredominant, and on October 14th (163 days) only quite empty

412 E. J. ALIEN AND E. W. NELSON.

frustules of Thalassiosira could be found, whilst thegrowth of P l eu rococcus was abundant and healthy. Theonly case where a diatom was observed to flourish in thepresence of this green alga was in a culture of Ni tzsch ia ,a bottom form. In this case a very abundant growth of thediatom was obtained, but the P leurococcus did notmultiply to any extent although it could always be found onmicroscopic examination.

III. NOTES ON PARTICULAR SPECIES OF DIATOMS, ON THEIR

METHODS oi' REPKODUCTION, AND ON OTHER ALG;E OCCUE-

EING IN CULTOKES.

A list has been already given (p. 367) of those species ,ofdiatoms which we have obtained in " persistent" cultures.Of these a species belonging to the genus Tha lass ios i rahas been used for experimental work in the great majority ofcases. We are not quite certain as to the identity of thespecies, but since it most resembles T. dec ip iens Grun. wehave called it by that name, although it does not exactly con-form to the published descriptions of that form. The mostcharacteristic feature of this particular species is the eccentricmarkings on the valves, which are also seen on the valves ofthe diatom Coscinodiscus excen t r i cus Ehr., and, as istypical of the genus, the frustules are united into chains bya delicate filament. ,-Jorgensen (50, p. 96) describes the valvesas "decidedly convex," Gran (49) as " flat," and both agreethat there are marginal spines and a single asymmetricalspine. Our cultural forms are united together by a filamentinto chains, some of which are made up of 500 cells and more,but the distance between each is considerably smaller thanthat figured by Gran. The valves are quite flat and themarginal spines are often present, although this is not alwaysthe case. The odd, asymmetrical apiculus can nearly alwaysbe seen. The eccentric markings have .only been observed ina few isolated .cases, and are then usually very indistinct. Inone culture these markings .on the valves were very .distinct,

ARTIFICIAL CULTURE 01' MARINE PLANKTON ORGANISMS. 413

and were also easily seen on the megafrustules (cf. below),,which developed in it, but in none of the several generationsof cultures started from this one have we been able to findany traces of marking at all. The genus seems to be in con-siderable confusion, and it is probable that the conflictingdescnptions given by different observers are due to variationsin. what is really one species.

. Persistent cultures of C o s c i n o d i s c u s e x c e n t r i c n s Ehr.have also been obtained, and it is interesting to note that thisdiatom sometimes forms chains, but they are rather excep-tional. These chains are never as long us those commonlyfound with T b a l a s s i o s i r a , two or four cells only being therule. The filament joining the valves is also .finer and moreeasily broken. The two species are quite distinct, and culturesof them can be discriminated by a practised eye. •• •: Two species of the genus "B iddu lph ia are commonlymet with in our cultures, namely B i d d u l p h i a m o b i l i e n s i s(Bail.) Grun. and B i d d u l p h i a r e g i a M. Schultze. Thesetwo forms are generally regarded as one species, but Osten-feld (54) has recently shown that they are really distinct.We have obtained persistent cultures of both forms fromseveral different samples of plankton, and the two species areeasily recognisable, never merging into one another. WhenPetri dishes, inoculated from plankton (see p. 367), containboth species, the colonies can be easily distinguished with asmall hand lens.

The most generally accepted theory of the reproduction ofthe DiatomaceEe is briefly that the cells divide by simple fission,but on account of the rigid character of the cell-walls eachdivision necessitates a decrease in size of the new valve, sincothis must always be formed inside the old valve. So thefrustules gradually get smaller and smaller as multiplicationproceeds, thus necessitating- some process by which, theOriginal size can be re-established. This takes place by theformation-of what are known as auxospores, whiclr ultimatelyform megafrustules, and these in turn multiply by divisionuntil the minimum limit of size has again been reached;

VOL. 55, PART 2. NEW SERIES. 27

414 . E. J. ALLEN AND E. W. NELSON.

There are also several special processes of reproduction, butno occurrence of any of these has been noted in our work(cf. Miquel [14]).

The diatoms in our cultures multiply by simple fission, andalthough there is, in nearly every case, a considerable diminu-tion in size when compared with specimens from the plankton,this diminution soon seems to reach a limit, where furtherdecrease does not take place. In chains of Tha lass ios i ra ,several hundred cells in length, no difference in size betweenindividuals could be made out. Auxospores are commonlyformed with every species, but only in cultures of Coscino-discus and Thalass ios i ra have megafrustules been found,and in these they are very exceptional. These megafrustulesseem to divide once or twice and then die or form new auxo-spores. What exactly is the fate of these auxospores, whichare often exceedingly numerous, we have not been able tomake .Out. It seems that cultural conditions are not favour-able to this mode of reproduction, and that the auxospores donot further the multiplication of the diatom at all. If thiswere not the case, stages of the formation of auxospores intofrustules must have been seen in some at least of the verynumerous samples examined. As it is, what has been see*, totake place is, that the cell contents expand and force apart thehalves of the diatom and emerge as a spherical body aboutthree or four times the diameter of the parent cell. Thechromatophores and diatomin then collect to one side, form-ing a compact cap agaiust the cell-wall. Beyond this pointno stages have been found, except in the case of the fewcultures where megafrustules were formed. In these thechromatophores, etc., gradually formed into the shape of thediatom (Coscinodiscus) ; the siliceous coat with plaineccentric markings was easily seen inside the spore; andlastly, the cell-wall of the spore burst, leaving the mega-frustule free. The megafrustule was measured and found tohave a diameter three times that of the parent cell.

In the case of the diatom we have very largely used forfeeding larvee, etc., namely Ni tzschia c los ter ium, forma

ARTIFICIAL CULTUEE OF MARINE PLANKTON ORGANISMS. 415

minu t i s s ima , a great number of cultures have been made,all originating from the single drop from which the firstpersistent culture was obtained. The total amount of growthin all the various cultures has been enormous, and the numberof generations must be quite inconceivable. No diminution insize has, however, been appreciable, and no sign of any methodof re-establishment of size has been seen, although these cul-tures have been under constant observation for over two years.This seems to prove that the theoiy of gradual decrease insize with successive generations cannot be generally applied.

The following experiment on the rate of multiplication ofTha la s s io s i r a in normal Miquel sea-water was carried out.A single drop from a fresh and vigorous culture was keptunder a microscope as a hanging-drop preparation in a moistchamber. The number of diatoms in this drop was countedfrom time to time and the results are given in the followingtable:

Day.11th14th19th27th34th41st

The curve -obtained by plotting the number of diatomsagainst the number of days approximates the curve of anordinary geometric progression, where the ratio is 2 andthe periods are equal to sixteen days. To show this thefigures read off from the curve at the same intervals asthe diatoms are appended in the table. From this it will beseen that, after a start had been made and before exhaustionset in, the numbers obtained agree fairly closely with theassumption that every diatom divided once in a period ofsixteen days. Probably in normal cultural conditions therate of multiplication greatly exceeds this figure on accountof better lighting, etc. (cf. Miquel 12).

Number offrustules.

596285

140170190

Geometricprogression

636885

120160220

410 j E. J. ALLEN AND E. \V. NELSON.

Besides diatoms, many other organisms appear in thesecultures. We are indebted to Mr. G. S. West for theidentification of a form of unicellular alga, which is verycommon and difficult to avoid when attempting to obtainpersistent cultures of the Diatomaceas, namely, P l e u r o -coccus mucosus (Kutz.) Rabenh. This small green alga, ifonce introduced into a culture of a plankton diatom, will soonmultiply at the expense of the latter with its ultimate extinc-tion. It is very hardy, and cultures of it in almost everymedium seem to last indefinitely. Multiplication beyond a,certain point probably does not occur, but the cells retaintheir colour and normal shape, and will start active repro-duction if suitable nutrient material is provided.

In cultures inoculated from plankton, many other-forms ofunicellular and filamentous algse thrive. Several speciesbelonging to the classes Rhodophy ceae and Myxophyceajcommonly occur, but we have not been able to identifythem.The most usual filamentous forms of Chlorophyceae areEn te romorpha , Vauchera , Rhizoclonium, etc. It isinteresting to note that it was the unintentional appearanceof young plants of L a m m a r i a d i g i t a t a in some of ourPetri dishes that led Mr. Drew (4) to cultivate this alga inMiquel sea-water and so discover its early life-history.Cultivations of marine algaj by these methods would withoutdoubt yield many new species, and would also provide richmaterial for the study of their modes of reproduction.

Many forms of flagellates live either together with diatomsor alone. Among these is an unidentified species of Chi lo-monas, which we have obtained in persistent culture. Itmultiplies very rapidly,, colouring the whole medium a deepred-brown. It flourishes in Miquel sea-water and its nutritionis evidently autotrophic. In one culture, in Miqnel sea-waterinoculated with plsmkton, a number of coccospheres developed,,probably Coccosphfera a t l a n t i c a Ostenf. Other flagellatesand ciliated infusoria are very commonly met with, such asBodo, Buplotes, Euglena, etc., which all. seem to dependon the diatoms or other vegetable organisms for their foodmaterial.

ARTIFICIAL OULTU-M Ol<' MARJ.NJ3 PLANKTON ORGANISMS. 41*7

IV. THE REARING OF MARINE LARV*.

In the rearing of pelagic larval forms of marine animals,1

the principle which we have followed has been to introduceinto pure, sterile sea-water the larvas to be reared, togetherwith a-pure culture of a suitable food. As far as practicableall'other organisms have been excluded from the rearingvessels. I t should be added that the food used in all successfulexperiments has been of a vegetable nature, and has continuedto gro\v actively in the vessels. This is important from thepoint of view of oxygen supply. Under the above conditions,or rather under ' the nearest approach to them at which wehave been able to arrive, no change of water has been fotindnecessary.

Atethods-.—It will, perhaps, best make the matter plainif we first of all describe the actual procedure, which we nowfollow in the case of such an animal as E c h i n u s e s c u l e n t u sor B. a c u t n s . The water to be used is first of all preparedby treating water from the aquarium tanks with powderedanimal charcoal, filtering it through a Berkefeld filter (p. 375),and collecting it in sterilised glass vessels. All instrumentsand pipettes are sterilised by baking in an oven, and a freshsterile pipette is used for each operation during the progressof the work. Specimens of E c h i n u s are then opened untila perfectly ripe female has been found, that is to sny, one inwhich the eggs separate quite freely when a portion of theovary is shaken in sea-water.

Pieces of ovary, taken from a little below the exposedsurface, are then placed in sterile sea-water in a shallow glassdish, and shaken with forceps in order to get the eggs wellseparated, or a, number of eggs from the centre of the ovaryare drawn up with a pipette and placed in the water. Avery small quantity of active sperm from a ripe male is thenadded, very little being sufficient to fertilise a large nirm'berof eggs. Excess of sperm should be avoided owing to' its

1 See " Bibliography," especially Grave (26), MacBride (28-30), Don-caster (25). etc.


liability to putrefy. After an interval of ten or fifteenminutes the water, containing the eggs, is filtered throughbolting silk of 100 meshes per inch, which just allows singleeggs to pass through, whilst keeping back clusters of eggsor other large material. The filtrate is divided amongst a.number of tall narrow beakers containing sterile sea-water,and the beakers, after being covered with a glass plate, areplaced where the temperature will be uniform and not risemuch above 15° C. In the course of twenty-four hours thehealthy larvae will swim up to the surface and can be easilyseen and removed from vessels of this shape. They aretransferred by means of sterile pipettes to jars ' of sterilesea-water, about fifty to seventy larvae being-put in each jarof 2000 c.c. sea-water. At the same time, a good pipettefulof a pure culture of diatom is added to each jar. The smalldiatom Ni tzsch ia closteriurn, forma minut i ss ima wehave found most useful, as its size is suitable, and it growswell in animal-charcoal tank-water, floating throughout thebody of the water, and so being in intimate admixture withthe lnrvaa. The jars are placed in a moderate light and at aseven a temperature as possible.8 No further attention isnecessary until the larvae have metamorphosed. The meta-morphosis takes place in from six to nine weeks afterfertilisation. Larva? may betaken out from time to time andexamined to see if they are Feeding well. If the diatoms donot grow sufficiently rapidly in the jar more sliould be addedfrom the culture flasks. We are more often troubled, however,towards the end of an experiment, by an excessive abundanceof diatoms. In this case the jar may either be put in adarker place, or some of the water may be drawn off andreplaced by a fresh supply of sterile sea-water. Oare should

1 The vessels we use are ordinary green-glass sweet-jars, having acapacity of about 2000 c.c, which are kept covered with the glass stoppersprovided with such jars, from which the cork band has been removed.

2 In hot weather we often stand the jars in one of the tanks of circu-lating aquarium water, which maintains them at a very uniform tempe-rature.

ABTIFICIAIi CULTURE 01'' MARINE PLANKTON ORGANISMS. 410

be taken to have a sufficient supply of food at the beginningof the experiment, so that the larvae may be able to feed assoon as they are ready for food.

The method just described can be modified in various'ways without detriment to the result. Sufficient sterilisationof the water may be effected by heating to 70° C. forfifteen minutes, after which it should be aerated by violentshaking. "Outside water" may be used instead of " tank-water," and may be treated with Miquel's solutions in theordinary way, to ensure a satisfactory growth of the food-diatom.

With regard to the food organisms, we have tried to obtainas large a variety of these in pure culture as possible, andthen to make trial of a number of them with each batch oflarvee ou which we have experimented. If no suitable purecultures are available, success can sometimes be obtained byadding a few drops of tow-netting, collected with a fine-meshed net (180 meshes per inch), directly to the treatedsterile water containing the larvae. In this case one dependson the chance of a suitable food-organism growing in thevessel, unaccompanied by any destructive organism. Onseveral occasions a satisfactory result has been reached byproceeding in this way, and the method is generally worth atrial, seeing that the number of larvae obtainable from anordinary fertilisation is very large and many differentexperiments are easily made with them.

We will now give details of some of the results obtained bymaking use of the methods described, or of their modifications.

Ech inus acutus.—The first successful experiment wasmade with this species. Eggs fertilised on June 13th, 1905,produced healthy larvae, fifty to seventy-five of which wereplaced, three days later, in a glass jar containing 2000 c.c. ofouside sea-water, filtered through animal charcoal, to whichmodified Miquel solutions were added. They were fed on adiatom culture, containing a small species of Chfetoceras,which did not form chains, a small diatom probably belongingto the genus Melosi ra , a small naviculoid diatom, two

420 . ]5. .3.. ALLEN AND B. A\\ NELSON.

minute flagellates, and a small green organism, probably oneof- the PieurococcaceEe. The vessel stood in a shallowtank, through which a stream of aquarium water was flowingand the temperature was fairly constant at 15° or 16° C ,though there is one record of 19° C. at the.end of July. Thefirst .two young- Ech inus were seen on July 25th, forty-twodays .after.' fertilisation, and on August 1st twenty werecounted. , On August 5th (the fifty-third day)- a. carefulsearch through the jar' gave twenty-one young Ech inus ofnormal size attached to the glafes, six minute but fully formedEchinus, about twenty-three still in the Pluteus. stage,roughly half of, which-were well advanced. .On August 16thSome of the water, which had not been, changed ;since the'beginning of the experiment,. \yas..replaced by "outside"water. On October 5th (sixteen weeks after fertilisation)twelve Ech inus were still alive. .Some pieces of red seaweedwere placed in the jar, upon which the Ech inus fixed them-:selves and fed. Several, of these specimens lived for over ayear, but sufficient attention was.not given to finding suitablefood, for them after the metamorphosis, so that they did notgrow yery large.

Ech inus esculentus.—Three successful experimentshave been made with E . esculentus . In the first (eggsfertilised April 5th, 1907), "outside" water treated withanimal charcoal and filtered through filter-cloth., but nototherwise sterilised, was used. A number of jars of 2000 c.C:capacity containing larvas were set up, and, to the most ofthese, various diatom, cultures then in our possession wereadded, none of which, however, gave a satisfactory result.In two jars, on the other hand, to which no cultui'e wasadded, there was considerable growth of diatoms and of aflagellate, upon which the Plutei fed. The first youngEch inus were recorded in both jars on June 8th (sixty-fourdays), but may have been present a few days earlier.Eventually from thirty to forty metamorphosed in one jarand about twelve in the other. The temperature varied from10-5° C. to 12-5° C. . . . . • . .

AUTIl'MCIAL CULTUKU OF MARINE PLANKTON ORGANISMS. 4 2 1

In the .second experiment (eggs fertilised June 8th, 1908),made with similar water, the'larvte were fed a on pure-cultureof N i t z sch ia c los ter iu in var., and six had completelymetamorphosed on July 26th (forty-eight days after fertilisa-tion), two more subsequently coming through. The tempera-ture was .generally 15° to .16° or 17° 0.

In the''third, experiment (eggs fertilised March 29.th, 1909)aquarium tank-water'treated with animnl charcoal and.thenfiltered through a Berkefeld filter was used.. Plutei fed "with apure culture of a small'flagellate (probably Chi lomouas sp.)grew satisfactorily, and eight young Ech inus were found onJuiie 5th (sixty-eight" days after -fertilisation), -which 'hadprobably metamorphosed .some days earlier. Two'other jars,in which Kitz-schia c los t e r ium var.: was used as food,were not successful, probably beciiuse the growth of-diatomsbecame too thick towards "the end of the experiment.

Ech inus miliaris .—In the first experiment with thisspecies animal-charcoal Berkefeld water was used, each jarcontaining, as usual, 2000 c.c. In one jar the Plutei, from eggsfertilised on August 27th, 1907, were fed on a pure culture ofNi t z sch i a c lo s t e r ium, var.. On October 4th, i. e. thirty-eight days after fertilisations-one E c h i n u s has just metamor-phosed. -On October 29th about a dozen healthy-lookingEchini were climbing about the jar, and many were still ina healthy condition on January 8th, 1908. Temperatures':September, 15° to 19° C.; October, 16° dropping to 13° C.towards end; November, 12° to 11° C.; December, 15°to 10? 0. .

To another jar containing larvte from the same batch a fewdrops of fresh Plankton were ;idded as food. The Plutei inthis case fed on flagellates and N i t z s c h i a which grew in thejar, and several metamorphosed..• In a second experiment with eggs fertilised on.September

13th, 1907, the larvae were fed with N i t z sch i a c los t e r ium,but although there were a few well-advanced plutei stillliving on -January 8th, 1908, none completed the meta*morphosis. • -


Cucumar ia saxicola.—A female Cucumar ia , one of anumber in a dish containing "outside" water, laid eggs,which were fertilised, and segmented on May 12th, 1906. Anumber of these were placed in a flask in 800 c.c. of " outside"water, which had been sterilised by heating and then treatedwith animal charcoal and filtered. About 1 c.c. of fineplankton, containing diatoms, was added to the flask on May12th. On May 25th some of the water Avas poured off and anew supply added. As the amount of food seemed small, someculture of a green alga (Pleurococcus inucosus [Kutz.]Rabenh.) was added, and this continued to grow well in theflask. The larvas continued healthy and formed youngCuciimaria , of which many were still alive on July 25th,1907, i . e . fourteen months after fertilisation. Some of thewater was changed in this flask on May 30th, 1906, June18th, 1906, and September 15th, 1906, and July 25th, 1907.Although many of these Cucvimaria remained quite healthythey did not grow to any great size. Probably the foodwhich was suitable to the larvae and early stages, ought tohave been changed as the animals grew older.

Poma toce ra s triqueter-—The larva? of Pomatoce rasare perhaps the easiest to rear, and give the most certainresults of any with which we have experimented. They dowell on the minute variety of Ni t z sch ia c los te r ium, butwill feed upon almost any small diatom. Since the adults livein calcareous tubes attached to stones, and the tubes have tobe broken open before the eggs can be obtained, it is not easyto get the latter free from infection of other organisms. If,therefore, the eggs are fertilised and placed in sterilisedanimal - charcoal water with only moderate precautions,sufficient growth of diatoms or other organisms will generallytake place in the jar to feed the Inrvas and bring them to theadult state. When once fixed to the glass the worms are veryhardy and healthy, and a stream of ordinary aquarium watercan be run through the jar. They then grow rapidly andattain a size equal to any found on the shore. The followingexperiment may be given in detail to illustrate, the' time


occupied ia development. On August 29th, 1907, eggs ofPoniatoceros triqueter were fertilised in animal-charcoalBerkefeld water, and some pure culture of Nifczschia clos-terium var. added. The larvae fed well, and on October 1st(i.e. thirty-three days after fertilisation), a great numberhad fixed on the sides of the jar and made quite normal tubes.A constant stream of the ordinary aquarium water was thenallowed to run through thejar, and the worms continued togrow and flourish, reaching a large size, and are still alive andhealthy (November, 1909). A similar result was obtainedfrom the same batch of eggs by feeding on a pure culture ofa flagellate infusorian. Temperatures during these twoexperiments were between 15° and 19° C.

Cliffitopteriis variopedatus.—Four experiments weremade with this species. The foodwhich gave, most promiseof success was the diatom Nitzschia closterium var.Larvae from eggs fertilised on July 20ch, 1908, fed on thismaterial lived until October 30th, and reached an advancedstage. They did not, however, adopt the adult habit andform tubes. Two larvEe were also reared to an advancedstage by using flngellates, and, in later stages, the diatomSkeleton em a cost a turn as food.

Sabellaria alveolata.—One experiment only was madewith this species, on eggs fertilised on July 19th, 1908. Tlieeggs were fertilised in "outside" water, and the larvaesubsequently transferred to jars containing animal-charcoalBerkefeld aquarium water. They were fed on a pure cultureof Nitzschia closter iu m.var., and kept healthy and active,and developed well until nearly the end of October, when,simultaneously with a sudden drop in temperature from 15°and 16° 0. tq 12° and 9 C, they sank to the bottom of thevessel, and in about three days were all dead. Temperatures:During July and August the temperature kept fairly constantat about 17° C, with a range from 15° to 19° C. DuringSeptember it was. generally about 15° C, and continued at

•about this level until the fall iu the middle of October.Archidoris tuberculata.—A good many trials have

424 ; . 1!. J. ALLEN AND K W. NELSON.

been made to rear the larvae of nudibrunohiate molluscs, butup to the present not much success has been achieved. Thebest experiment was one made with larvae of A r c h i d o r i stubercu la ta . A number of veligers of this species hatchedoai on May 8th, .1906, from some spawn which'had justbeen collected from the shore. Some of these were put in aflaslc containing 1000 c.c. of sterilised animal-charcoal water,and about 1 c.c. of fine plankton was added. On May 14tlia few veligers were transferred to' another flask of sterilisedanimal-charcoal water and some.pure culture of the greenalga, P leurococcus mucosusywas added. Whereas thelarvae in the original flask did not live long, those providedwith the green alga- fed well and developed for some con-siderable time. A number of them were active and vigorouson July 4th, i. e. fifty-one days after hatching, and Severalwere still swimming at the end of July. On August 15thnone conld be seen moving, but two of those which lay onthe bottom, wlien examined with the microscope, sliowed nosign of decomposition. Tlie animal was retracted in the shell,but the tissue looked healthy, and the eye-spots .and otolithscould be seen. The growth in the flask seemed to be aquite pure culture of P leurococcus . Larvas were examinedagain on September 14th, and appeared much as in August,the tissue still showing no sign of disintegration. The flaskwas not again examined microscopically until July 25th ofthe following year (1907). No sign of the larvae could thenbe seen, but the culture of P leu rococcus remained pure•and healthy.

Subsequent- experiments were made with, spawn, whichAvas deposited by the fenuiles in confinement. ' Although the•sptuvn hatched -and gave appnrently healthy larvas, these didnot live for more than a few days.

Calanus finmarchicns.—A single experiment is perhapsworth recording, as showing that it ought to be possible torear this species without great difficulty. On August 8th,1905, to a flask containing 1000 c.c.' of outside water(unsterilised) there was added A c.c. of Miquel's solution B

ARTIFICIAL CULTURE 01'' MARINE PLANKTON ORGANISMS. 425

and A c.c. of a 1"5 per cent, solution of anhydrous sodiumcarbonate. A few Calanus finmarchicus and some decapodZoeas were pat in, together with a quantity of a culturecontaining mixed diatoms. On September 8th all the Zoeaswere dead, but three Ca lanus were alive, and N i t z sch i aand a "number of bottom diatoms were very plentiful. OnSeptember 17tli the three large Ca lanus were alivo andvigorous, and a considerable number of Nanp l i i were seenin the flask. By September 22nd two of t h e N a u p l i i haddeveloped into young Ca lanus . These, however, did notlive for more than a week or ten days, and the adults alsodied. The flask was abandoned on November 13th, thewater in it not having been changed since the commencementof the experiment.

Ech inus hybrid.—A successful experiment on crossingE. e scu len tus and E. a c u t u s was carried out by Mr.W. De Morgan, who was working at the Plymouth Laboratory.We provided, him with treated.water and diatom cultures forfood, and lie followed our methods. We are indebted to himfor allowing us to publish these results. Some eggs from aripe E . e scu len tus were fertilised by active sperm from anE. acu tus , in sterilised water, on March 29th, 1909. Healthylarvae, were; obtained, and were transferred two days later totank-water, which had been treated with animal charcoal andfiltered through a Berkefeld filter. A culture of N i t z s c h i ac los te r ium var. was added as food, and the larv.se developedrapidly,, feeding well. Several were completely metamor-phosed on May 7th, or thirty-nine days, after fertilisation,Iu all thirty young hybrids were obtained, and a number ofthese are still alive and feeding on red weeds.

S a c c u l i n a carcini .—Mr. Geoffrey Smith has recordedthe fact ('Quart. Jqurn. Micr. Sci:.,' vol. 51, 1907, p.. 625)that he was able to rear the larvae of Saccu l ina up to theCypris stage, when they attached themselves to their host',Ca rc inus msenas. These larvae were kept in- aquariumtank-water treated with animal charcoal and filtered througha Berkefeld filter. In this case the question of, iood did not

426 E. J. ALLEN AND K. W. NELSON.

arise, as the larvas do not feed after hatching. It must benoted, however, that these larvas had previously been rearedby Muller and by Delage.

Summary of Method for R e a r i n g Larvae.—We havefound that the best results in rearing marine larvae have beenattained by taking the following precautions :

(1) The eggs of the female selected must be really ripe, andthe spermatozoa of the male active.

(2) The smallest quantity of sperm necessary to fertilisethe eggs should be used.

(3) Sterile sea-water, treated in such a way that diatomsetc., will grow well in it, should be used. No frequent changeof water is then necessary.

(4) All dishes, jars, instruments, and pipettes, should becarefully sterilised before use. Every possible effort shouldbe made to prevent the introduction into the rearing-jars ofany organisms other than the larvae to be reared, andoi'ganisms on which they feed. The jars should be coveredwith loosely fitting glass covers,

(5) The eggs after fertilisation must be separated from allforeign matter, pieces of ovary, or testis, etc. As soon asthe larvas swim up they should be pipetted off into freshvessels of treated water, so as to leave behind any unseg-mented eggs, etc.

(6) The food organisms should be small in size, so that thelarvae can draw them into the mouth by ciliary currents.The food should distribute itself through the body of theliquid, and not settle too readily on the bottom of the vessel.(This is one of the great advantages of the diatom Ni tzsch iac los te r inm, forma minut iss ima.)

(7) The food should be abundant early, so that the larvaemay commence feediug as soon as they are able to do so.The food, however, must not be allowed to get excessivelythick in the water. It can be kept down by diminishing thelight, or by changing some of the water..

(8) The temperature should be kept as constant aspossible. Within limits the actual degree of temperature

ARTIFICIAL CULTURE OV MARINE PLANKTON ORGANISMS. 4 2 7

is not so important as the avoidance of rapid changes oftemperature.

(9) A good north light, not exposed to direct sunlight,, ismost suitable for the rearing-jars.

(10) In determining the amount of water to be used in anyparticular vessel, regard must be had to the amount of watersurface exposed to the air, which should be large in propor-tion to the volume of the water.

(11) A change of food is generally required after the meta-morphosis of the larvae.

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428 E. J. ALLKN AND E. W. NELSON.

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17. " Uber Reinkulturen von Diatomeen und die Notwendigkeitder Kieselsiiure fiir Nitzschia palea (Kiitz) W. Sm.," 'Vevli.d. Gesell. deut. Naturf. u. Arzte, Breslau,' ii, 1904, p. 249.

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30. "The Development of Ech inus e scu len tns , togetherwith some Points in the Development of E. mi l ia r i s and E.acu tus , " ' Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc.,' B. cxcv, 1903, p. 285.

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VOL. 55, PART 2. NEW SERIES. . 28

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Documents

On the Artificial Culture of Marine Plankton Organisms. · ten organisms, chiefl o varioufy diatomss species, . Petri dishes (4 in.) containin, 6g0 c.c eac.h of Miquel sea-water,