462 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



productive. If desirable material calls Tiini to a climate that 

 induces lassitude and exposes him to infectious diseases, let his 

 salary or the funds at his disposal for research be sufficient to 

 enable him to choose his time and limit his stay to the necessities 

 of the case. 



Having said this much on the principles that must guide us to 

 a wise choice of location, I must add a word on the tendency to 

 scatter forces. On this point the words of Lacaze-Duthiers (Ar- 

 chives de Zoologie expe'rirnentale et gene'rale, tome ix, 1891, page 

 258), the distinguished director of the Marine Laboratory of Ros- 

 coff and Banyuls, are of interest. Speaking of the tendency to 

 multiply seaside laboratories in France, he says : " We have 

 been able to count as many as seventeen or eighteen stations on 

 our coasts in the course of 1891. Are they all born to live ? 

 Will they all endure as long as the pompous announcements that 

 have accompanied or preceded them would have us believe ? 

 Have not some discounted too quickly the future ? ... Is this 

 not also an exaggeration and a dissipation of precious energies, 

 ■which, if concentrated into a single strong organization, might ren- 

 der very great service ? " 



The survival of the fittest will in time answer these questions 

 for us. But there is something to be said in favor of multiplying 

 stations, if their creation be well considered, and determined with 

 a view to extend rather than duplicate the facilities of a central 

 station. Obviously a central station organized on a foundation 

 that would permit of supplementing local by itinerary research 

 would profit immensely by stations at favorable points, standing 

 in auxiliary relations. Of such stations let us have all that we 

 can possibly have without diverting either forces or funds that 

 should go to make a strong common center. The danger lies, not 

 in the possession of auxiliaries, but in the tendency to build up 

 isolated laboratories in antagonistic rather than co-operative re- 

 lations. In union there is strength, in division impotence. The 

 advantages of a strong central station are so immeasurably supe- 

 rior to those of many weak local ones, that we are bound to en- 

 courage the former and discourage the latter. Our first effort 

 should be to secure one foundation in the interest of all, rather 

 than a multitude of isolated ones in the interest of individual col- 

 leges or universities. No university in this country can under- 

 take to found a biological observatory for the whole country; but 

 all can well afford to unite in the support of one founded by pri- 

 vate munificence and open to all on equal terms. This is the only 

 basis on which we can expect to secure an observatory of national 

 importance. No scheme that ignores this simple, common-sense 

 fact can ever lead to anything more than a small local success at 

 the best. Now, I think every prominent naturalist in the country 



