THE TORTUGAS LABORATORY 399 



that once was living coral; and the Gulf Stream, that greatest carrier 

 of floating life, flows close to the Tortugas, and the southerly and east- 

 erly winds of the summer months constantly drive its dark blue waters 

 upon the islands. 



It is on account of these things that the Carnegie Institution of 

 Washington, seeking always to promote research in fields that others 

 can not, or dare not, venture to explore, has established a marine labo- 

 ratory upon Loggerhead Key, Tortugas. The station is still young, 

 its first season being that of 1905. 



The era of finding and naming of animals which had its dawn with 

 Linnaeus and its noonday of splendor with the great French naturalists 

 has waned into its dignified decline. Not that systematic zoology will 

 not accomplish much in the future, but the days of its great achievement 

 are in the past. 



Therein, indeed, lies the opportunity of the Tortugas laboratory, 

 for a new science has arisen phoenix-like above the ashes of the old. 

 Modern biology is now but little concerned with the naming of dead 

 things, but the study of the living has become of paramount importance. 

 All problems necessitating the study of living animals have been neg- 

 lected in the tropics, yet there in the pure water of the Gulf Stream 

 one may conduct such experiments with extraordinary success. It is 

 through the study of living animals that science has already discovered 

 truths of incalculable benefit — the control of malaria, yellow fever, and 

 the hook-worm — but a mere beginning has been made in this new sci- 

 ence, and, if unrestricted by ill-considered legislation, its future prom- 

 ises far more than its brief past has given us. 



As Franklin said when asked the purport of the study of so trivial 

 a set of phenomena as those of frictional electricity — " Of what use is 

 a baby? It may become a man." Who could predict that a reflection 

 of the sun from the windows of the Luxembourg would reveal to Malus 

 the secret of polarized light, and lead ultimately to the most accurate 

 analysis of sugars. It is a reflection upon our lack of confidence that 

 in this age o*ne must still plead for the cause of pure science, for every- 

 where about us Ave find practical applications rendered possible only 

 through the previous discovery of their underlying principles by stu- 

 dents whose inducement to labor was their love of science, not the hope 

 of financial gain. Thus it was that Henry paved the way for Morse's 

 telegraph, Faraday's classic studies rendered possible the dynamo and 

 electric motor, and the researches of Hertz found their practical appli- 

 cation in the development of wireless telegraphy. 



Fifty years ago Darwin changed biology into a philosophical science, 

 but it is only recently that it has exhibited decisive evidence of passing 

 out of the qualitative into the quantitative stage of its development. 



Thus it is that in these days a marine laboratory is dependent not 



