The Savannah morning news., 1903-11-08

One of the first objects that strikes
the eye on entering the laboratory is
a common chicken-egg incubator.
You see," said Prof. Nelson. 'the
nights are frequently cold. 1t may be
80 or 80 degrees at noon, and before
the next sunrise it may fall below so
degrees. Now, in nature, the oysters are
in water which is almost stationary in
tempature during the "a hours, say rs
or 80 degrees, so l have had TO in
stall an incupator and keep the tempa-
ture about so degrees all night long"
The professor deftly opened several
oysters like a born oysterman. He Sc
lected the most milky" plunged the
point of his knife into their sides. and
smeared a drop of this milk on a
glass side. The microscope revealed tiny
eggs, somewhat resembling oyster
shells in their outline, only not 50 fiat.
They were SO small they could scarce
ly be seen with the naked eye. Prof.
Nelson wiped off the point of his knife
with a little sea water just ter jab-
bing 1t into the male oyster and next
into the female, until the water looked
as If milk had been added.
Ten minutes later he declared ferti-
lization had ben completed.
"A couple of hundred sperms, more
or less" he said. well fastened to the
egg, but microscope study reveals
that If more than one enters the egg
the result will be a monstrosity that
will fail to develop"
Drawing off the spermatized water,
Prof Nelson put it into clear water, re-
peatng the operation several times.
The zone occupied by the eggs could
be seen as they slowly settle at a. rate
of one inch every five minutes. In
about an hour at a temperature Of 80
degrees the first development of the
eggs begins. 1t consists of the egg
pinching off the bud, which. however.
still sticks fast. Soon a pair of bids
appear, and later each part pinches in
to two, and so until the egg locks mucI
like a mulberry or raspberry in form.
In about five hours this little egg or
embyo oyster will begin to spin
around. A drop Of highly magnifed
water reveals thousands of these
tiny little oysters FRY" swimming
about In about "a hours they begin
to get shells on them. They then
stay near the bottom of the glas es,
forming layers. So sturdy are the
shells thus quickly formed that they
can be heard grating against each
other when stirred.
At this stage of development, the
embryo oyster begin to feed. Hither-
to they have lived on the nutriment
stored within the eggs themselves.
What food is uneaten decays and
kills the oyster unless they are re-
moved. Prof. Nelson has devised a
little shallow or claire" as he terms It,
q sort of harbor dug out of the bank
of the creek, which runs past the lab
ortaory, and covered with a roof The
bottom is covered with sand and is so
high as to be exposed at every low tide.
This Is to renew the water with each
tide, but there is enough left to keep
the fry alive.
At this juncture of the oysters de-
velopment. Prof. Nelson has encounter
ed one of his hardest prcblems-that
of keeping the tiny FRY" from escap-
ing from the claire" He is working
at present to perfect the gate which
he now uses. The finest boiling cloth
he could obtain was too wide in
mesh to retain the oysters. He finally
hit upon gate made of absorbent
cotton quilted between two sheets of
wire netting but 1t Is unfortunately
too tight to allow the water to pass
through it freely and still retain the
oysters. The manufacture of a proper
gate is the problem laid out for next
summer.