130 D. J. SCOURFIELD ON FRESH-WATER BIOLOGICAL STATIONS. 



no biologist's education could be considered complete if he had not 

 worked for a time in a biological station. As, however, the 

 benefit derived therefrom was certainly not entirely due to the 

 material used in his researches, but very largely to the training 

 in methods and to the enthusiasm aroused by intercourse with 

 other workers, there was no reason why fresh-water stations 

 should not prove at least a partial substitute for the marine 

 stations, to those who could not make it convenient to spend some 

 time at one of the latter. The universities of the great inland 

 states of the United States had this idea brought home to them 

 in connection with the training of their numerous students, and 

 it is in these States — Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Ohio, etc. — 

 that the principal development of fresh-water biological stations 

 has taken place. The ordinary investigations into the natural 

 history of such inland countries also tended in the same direction, 

 and, as a matter of fact, the earliest of the fresh-water biological 

 stations — a little portable laboratory with accommodation for only 

 two workers — was specially designed to facilitate the natural 

 history survey of Bohemia. 



As another factor of great importance, in connection with the 

 increased amount of attention now being given to fresh-water 

 biology and to the establishment of fresh-water biological stations, 

 must certainly be reckoned the rise of limnology, or the study of 

 lakes from every possible point of view. This we owe mainly to 

 Prof. F. A. Forel, who has shown by his work on Lake Geneva 

 what may be done for science by careful investigations of single 

 bodies of fresh water. But if there is one result of limnological 

 work which stands out clearer than another, it is certainly this — 

 that the problems to be solved are found to be so complex, 

 especially on the biological side, that mere random observations 

 are of little use. Systematic work for a long time is absolutely 

 necessary, and, of course, this can only be secured, as a rule, by 

 the founding of stations specially equipped for the work. 



The desire to improve fresh-water fisheries, which has been so 

 strongly manifested on the Continent and in America, though 

 not much in this country, has also in recent years produced 

 some excellent results as far as fresh-water biology is concerned. 

 Numerous attempts have been made to introduce scientific 

 methods of increasing the yield of fresh-water fisheries, but in 

 nearly all cases it has -been found that more facts about the con- 



