A MARINE BIOLOGICAL OBSERVATORY. 469 



common medium bear to one another; their relations with their surroundings, 

 and without which they would he unable to sustain the struggle for existence. 

 Here, again, lies a field, little explored as yet, open to researches which have not 

 only great scientific interest hut immediate and undeniable practical value. I 

 should perhaps surprise the public, who are in the habit of attributing to us 

 savants a much greater fund of scientific knowledge than we really possess — I 

 should perhaps surprise the public by maintaining that, with the exception of the 

 herring and the sole, which have been studied of late years, we have only very 

 fragmentary, incomplete, and insufficient knowledge of the life conditions of a 

 host of marine animals, the fishery of which enriches so many industries and sup- 

 plies us with so valuable a store of food. Our laws and regulations respecting 

 marine fisheries (I speak only of continental Europe) are based on the vaguest 

 notions — to a great extent only on suppositions or on analogies drawn from fresh- 

 water fisheries. I am well aware of the fact that the settling of these questions, 

 on the solution of which so largely depends the future of our fisheries, and with 

 these the nourishment of our posterity — I am well aware of the fact, I say, that 

 here also considerable resources are necessary : extensive aquaria, steam launches 

 for long excursions — in short, all sorts of paraphernalia. But more requisite than 

 all these are patient observers, indefatigable workers, who will not hesitate to 

 devote years of labor to the solution of problems that may be summed up in a 

 few words or even prove insoluble. I am convinced, however, that when once 

 the utility — yes, the necessity — of such researches is generally recognized, citizens 

 interested in the welfare and progress of their country will be found to furnish, 

 some the financial resources, others the sustained intellectual labor. 



Such are, to my mind, the aims of a marine biological laboratory. Has the 

 utility, the necessity of such institutions been demonstrated ? I trust that it has. 

 I do not deny that the pursuit of these aims will require very considerable sums. 

 I may add that the expense will be still further increased by the purchase and 

 maintenance of an appropriate library. A neighboring library, to which access 

 can not be had without some trouble, will not be sufficient. The investigators 

 should be able while their work is in progress, to put their hands on all the books 

 that can give them any information on the subject of their study. It is the pos- 

 session of just such a library that assigns so important a rank to the station at 

 Naples. 



You have my best wishes, my dear sir, for the success of your enterprise. I 

 sincerely hope that you will be assisted by your countrymen in every way, mu- 

 nificently, abundantly. You will pardon the length of my letter. If it contrib- 

 utes to the desired result, I shall be more than delighted. It will be a great joy to 

 me in my old age to see arising on the other side of the Atlantic, through the free 

 initiative of your fellow-countrymen, an institution destined to render great serv- 

 ice to science, to the country, and to the people. With this wish I remain, 



Yours sincerely, C. Vogt. 



Prof. Huxley writes : 



[London,] October 30, 1891. 

 Dear Sir : At this time of day, I do not think that a project for the establish- 

 ment of a biological laboratory should need much advocacy. Biological prob- 

 lems are certainly before the public, and I hope that it is beginning to dawn upon 

 the veriest Gigadibs of a litterateur, that the solutions of them are to be obtained 

 by no book learned speculation however ingenious, but by patient appeal to Na- 

 ture in the way of observation and experiment. I do not venture to say that 



