24 NATIONAL TRENDS IN BIOLOGY 



more or less specific fields in their respective lands, due 

 to geographical conditions rather than political bounda- 

 ries. For instance, one finds Canada and the Scandinavian 

 lands with vast coastal lines always interested in fisheries 

 and all that relates to them. But we shall let the Nor- 

 wegian biologist, Hjalmar Broch, speak for himself: 



"A survey of the biological works in Norway in many 

 respects shows that geographical conditions play a pre- 

 dominant part. On the one hand, we are situated in the 

 periphery, and we see how 'moves' prevail in theoretical 

 studies. During the first years of the century the cytologi- 

 cal mania which had already culminated in Central 

 Europe, also made its way to our university, and gradu- 

 ally faded away again some time after it had played out 

 its predominant part in Germany. Then studies of hered- 

 ity made their way northward, and are at present a la 

 mode to a degree that every student of biology finds it 

 his duty to bestow a tinge of this on his theme, however 

 far the latter in reality may be apart from the field of 

 heredity investigations. In many cases we can trace this 

 mania backward to the rise of certain leaders of little 

 originality who wish to be a la mode, so as to get a place 

 among the real leaders of the epoch. 



"There is, however, one field of biology that runs like 

 a real thread through the history of Norwegian biological 

 science — the ocean. From the earliest times, our nation 

 has been a nation of sailors and fishermen, and it was from 

 the beginning but natural that the attention of Norwegian 



