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will be of first-class educational impQrtance. Professor 

 Powell of Bombay considers that it would be difficult 

 to exaggerate the importance of a properly equipped 

 aquarium as an educational factor. A proper biological 

 laboratory added to the exhibition and opportunities of 

 study afforded by the aquarium would supply sets of 

 specimens for the whole of India and to many other 

 places, while providing a place of study from the life, 

 as in other countries. 



6. Practical. — An aquarium which is at the same 

 time a biological station would be of great practical 

 importance, especially to the " Fisheries " staff. Marine 

 fish-farming, for instance, can hardly be undertaken 

 successfully or without much loss of time and money, 

 until we know at least something of the breeding and 

 feeding habits or characteristics of food-fishes on which, at 

 present, we know absolutely nothing ; these points could 

 be readily studied in an aquarium properly equipped for 

 such studies and continuously available to Fishery 

 officers. Similarly it would be possible for experts to 

 study and probably ascertain the method of inducing the 

 pearl oyster to produce pearls ; as I have pointed out in 

 my Note on Japanese Fisheries, it was by study at the 

 coastal biological station that Professor Mitsukuri was 

 led to suggest to a business man a method of inducing 

 pearl growth, a method which, though only growing half 

 or three-quarter pearls, has brought lakhs of rupees 

 of profit to Japanese pearl-growers. From further 

 re-searches it is possible, perhaps probable, that a method 

 of growing whole or round pearls may be developed, and 

 in Mr. Hornell we have an expert capable of tackling the 

 problem which scientists elsewhere are attempting. So 

 also the bionomics of chanks could be readily studied, a 

 necessary preliminary to a culture which must prove of 

 direct pecuniary gain to Government and others. There 

 are many other practical matters which could advantage- 

 ously be studied in an aquarium which includes a properly 

 equipped biological laboratory. 



7. I conclude point («) by suggesting that Madras is 

 the proper place for a combined aquarium and biological 

 station for scientific, educational and practical work. 

 The Presidency has the longest sea-board of any 

 province ; it is washed both by the Bay of Bengal and by 

 the Indian Ocean, and is completely tropical. Moreover, 



