BIOLOGICAL RESEARCH IN RELATION TO THE FISHERIES. 63 



Smithsonian Institution, Professors Henry, Baird, and Langley. As the fostering 

 mother of the most momentous scientific enterprises, from which incalculably valuable 

 economic benefits have been derived for the whole country, that institution stands 

 without a rival on the American continent. 



Emerson has remarked that "to a sound judgment the most abstract truth is the 

 most practical." This remark has been frequently verified in the course of scientific 

 progress. The development at the time of apparently useless truths by Faraday, 

 Henry, and others, in their laboratories, has led to the evolution of the most wondrous 

 practical developments in applied electrical science. The same remark holds good in 

 respect to biological research. The seemingly useless facts gathered to-day by the 

 disinterested, truth-seeking biological investigator will, if not to-morrow, become 

 useful next year or even ten years hence. Those of us who have watched the progress 

 of biological research for a quarter of a century can speak with assurance that, in 

 proportion to the complexity of the phenomena and the difficulty of dealing with 

 the subject-matter, biology has made as creditable a showing as any other science 

 whatever. 



The very complexity of the phenomena involved and the tedious and patient man- 

 ner in which results must be awaited are only additional reasons why biological science 

 should receive the encouragement it deserves in working out abstract truths in 

 order to give them practical bearings. The scientific investigation of the interrelations 

 of the members of the aquatic world of life, from the lowliest to the most complex of its 

 form, is what the U. S. Fish Commission has undertaken to do with the all too meager 

 means at its command. Practical results the Fish Commission has achieved under the 

 administrations of Profs. Baird and McDonald. It now remains to increase the effi- 

 ciency of that work by adding to its duties, as desired by the present Commissioner, 

 those of pure research under endowment, so that the great laboratory, in connection 

 with the hatching station at Woods Holl, can be made productive for the entire year 

 instead of only for a few months out of the twelve. 



We might then begin to hope that the foundation for a theory of the economics 

 of ocean life would be laid, since, with the unequaled facilities for the study and 

 capture of the life of the surface and bottom of the sea, possessed by the Commission, 

 a vast system of organized research might be conducted that would be beyond 

 anything in value yet undertaken by any country of the world. With abundant 

 means to defray the expense of the costly illustrations and experiments incident to 

 the work, such an establishment would be an enduring monument to some generous, 

 liberal-spirited donor. Such a system of biological investigation in connection with 

 the many stations possessed by the Fish Commission all over the country might be 

 made the most comprehensive in existence. As shown at the outset of this paper, it 

 is a knowledge of the life-history of the seemingly useless and intinitesimally small 

 forms that must lie at the foundation of a knowledge of the growth and development 

 of the useful and practically valuable forms of life. It would, therefore, seem that no 

 stronger argument should at this late day be needed in behalf of the utility and 

 wisdom of an extension of research in connection with the fishery industries of our 

 country. Will some generous friends of science permanently link their names with 

 one of the grandest enterprises and opportunities of modern times"? It would be most 

 fitting if the fifth century of the Columbian era might witness the permanent estab- 

 lishment of a great biological laboratory on our coast, the sole business of which would 

 be to foster research and economic study in relation to the fisheries of our country. 



