I 142 OYSTERS, AND ALL ABOUT THEM. 



covery of a new scientific truth which has, in the hands of 

 practical economists, contributed to the welfare of mankind. 



" Mr. John A. Ryder has this summer repeated these 

 experiments in Maryland, and has shown that they are as 

 successful here as they are in France. An account of his 

 apparatus and of the results obtained has been published in 

 the Bulletin of the U.S. Fish Commission for September 6, 

 1883, under the title of ' Rearing Oysters from Artificially 

 Fertilized Eggs, together with notes on Pond Culture, &c.,' 

 by John A. Ryder." 



I am, Sir, your obedient servant, 



A NATURALIST. 



P.S. An important suggestion arises in connexion with 

 the above report. The Fishmongers' Company have largely 

 contributed to the new " Technical College " at South Ken- 

 sington, but no provision is there made for the study of 

 marine biology, as, indeed, it would be hardly possible to 

 do. The sea-coast laboratory should be the technical in- 

 stitute of the Fishmongers' Company ; nothing could be 

 more appropriate than that they should take the Marine 

 Biological Association by the hand and identify themselves 

 with it by building the required laboratory. And since 

 the Fishmongers have generously contributed to the Tech- 

 nical College of the other Guilds, they in turn, we may 

 hope, will be willing to help ths Fishmongers in building 

 the Marine Technical Institute or Sea-side Laboratory. 



Commenting upon the above interesting letter, the 

 same paper, in a long (but by no means exhaustive) leader, 

 says 



"We print this morning an appeal from 'A Naturalist' 

 on behalf of a Marine Biological Laboratory. The idea of 

 such a laboratory is not a new one, and it has already taken 



