The web page was created and compiled to guide the curious individual into the realm of "knowledge is power" and "breaking through." There is something to be said for just plain pure education, knowledge, and curiosity to know about animlas and their natural landscapes from the perspective of WILD NATURE. That kind of knowledge is in all of the writing of George MacGinitie. It also hoped that these web pages will help educate us all about the inter-relationships of the land and the sea, through the eyes of a gifted marine naturalist and marine biologist.

Two Gephyrean worms of the species Urechis caupoFisher and Macginitie were placed in rotted sea water and fed a culture of the bacterium Pseudomonassp. for a period of 68 days. During this time these worms showed a growth which was greater than that usually occurring in nature. Two controls washed away and died after 61 and 63 days, respectively.

Urechis caupowas used for this experiment, because it lives in mud-flat regions rich in bacteria and because it feeds by spinning a slime net, which intercepts all particles within the range of microscopic vision.

From the results of the above experiment it may be concluded that if a bottom animal can use a cultured bacterium as food and show normal or increased rate of growth, it seems safe to assume that when bacteria occur in the food of such animals in nature they are utilized in the proportion in which they occur.

The use of bacteria as a food supply offers possibilities for their use in rearing larvae for developmental studies and experimental embryology.

G. E. MacGinitie
Hopkins Marine State
of Stanford University