A MARINE BIOLOGICAL OBSERVATORY. 465 



of the colleges' and the co-operation of investigators, and on 

 the same ground we have rested every appeal for pecuniary- 

 assistance. 



In certain respects of fundamental importance, then, the Ma- 

 rine Biological Laboratory stands alone among the seaside labora- 

 tories now in existence. Its general policy has been national in 

 scope; the organization of its governing board and its staff of 

 instructors is entirely non-sectional in character; it is an inde- 

 pendent establishment, free from the control of any other insti- 

 tution, and owes its existence to private initiative ; its record of 

 five years has been such as to win the desired support of many of 

 our leading colleges, and thus to place it on a vantage-ground that 

 insures its development along the line of its choice. 



Its growth in numbers and prosperity has far outrun expecta- 

 tion. Starting in 1888 with an attendance of seventeen, repre- 

 senting thirteen different institutions, it increased that number 

 to forty-four in 1889, forty-seven in 1890, seventy-one in 1S91, and 

 one hundred and ten in 1892, representing fifty-two of our higher 

 educational centers. The number of colleges, universities, semi- 

 naries, academies, schools, etc., represented during the five sea- 

 sons is one hundred and ten. "We now have thirty private rooms 

 for the use of investigators, and five general laboratories for the 

 use of students and beginners in investigation. Every room and 

 every laboratory has been filled the past summer to overflowing, 

 so that the library room had to be again occupied, notwithstand- 

 ing the addition of new buildings more than doubling the ca- 

 pacity of the original laboratory. During the summer we have 

 had no less than fifty investigators, over thirty of whom occupied 

 rooms as independent workers. We can now point to scientific 

 results that secure for the laboratory a reputation of which many 

 a richer foundation might be envious. 



With so encouraging a beginning already made, what option 

 have we but to go on and build up on this basis, trusting that 

 friends of our science will be found who will appreciate its work 

 and its need and give it an adequate foundation ? 



Biology in America has many needs, but not one that rises 

 to the importance of a marine observatory. In that its highest 

 interests now center, and I am sure that I only express the 

 conviction of my scientific colleagues, both in this country and 

 abroad, when I say that the establishment of such an observatory 

 is an object worthy of the most splendid gift that private munifi- 

 cence has ever bestowed on any branch of science. It costs many 

 millions nowadays to create a first-class university ; and not a 

 few low-grade affairs might better have never been planted. In- 

 stead of multiplying such institutions, it would be wise to create 

 scientific institutes for the larger and more important branches of 



VOL. XLII. 31 



