464 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



limited to research, and its workers would be few and for the 

 most part transients in search of material to be taken away and 

 worked up elsewhere. Its function, however, would be none the 

 less important in subserving interests that could not otherwise 

 be so conveniently and efficiently provided for. It ought, there- 

 fore, to receive the heartiest support from all who are interested 

 in the advancement of biology. 



Of the marine laboratories now in existence on our coast, the 

 Marine Biological Laboratory holds a somewhat exceptional posi- 

 tion, both in its organization and in its general aims. It owes its 

 inception to some members of the Boston Society of Natural His- 

 tory acting in co-operation with the Woman's Educational Asso- 

 ciation of that city. It is controlled by a board of some twenty 

 trustees, representing the following institutions : Harvard, Yale, 

 Columbia, Princeton, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts In- 

 stitute of Technology, Williams College, University of Cincin- 

 nati, Bowdoin College, Boston Society of Natural History, the 

 Missouri Botanical Garden of St. Louis, Philadelphia Academy 

 of Science, University of Chicago, and the University of To- 

 ronto. This representative board has been extended every year 

 until it may now be said to have a national character, includ- 

 ing the majority of our leading biologists who are interested in 

 marine work. Its officers of instruction have been taken from 

 Harvard, Brown, Princeton, Clark, Chicago, Massachusetts In- 

 stitute of Technology, Bryn Mawr, Cornell, Massachusetts Ex- 

 periment Station, • University of Nebraska, Boston Society of 

 Natural History, University of Cincinnati, Ohio Wesleyan Uni- 

 versity, and the Allis Lake Laboratory. Its membership has ex- 

 tended to nearly all the more important educational institutions 

 of the country. It represents the third attempt that has been 

 made to unite our universities and colleges in the support of 

 a marine laboratory. Mr. Alexander Agassiz made the first at- 

 tempt as early as 1874, at the close of the last season at Peni- 

 kese; and ten years later a second attempt was made by Prof. 

 Baird. Although these efforts failed of their immediate object, 

 they certainly prepared the way for whatever has been accom- 

 plished since. The aim from the outset has been to provide for 

 both investigation and instruction, but for the latter as subsidiary 

 to the former. The problem has been to combine the two in such 

 relations that each would contribute most to the same end — the 

 advancement of science. We have always kept in view the neces- 

 sity of providing as early as possible a separate building for the 

 exclusive use of investigators. Our effort from the beginning, as 

 declared in every annual report, and as shown in every step thus 

 far taken, has been to uphold a plan of national breadth ; and it 

 is on this basis that we have asked and received the support 



