OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 145 



specimens preserved in museums are often unstdted to anatomical 

 investigations, and altogether incapable of being used in those 

 pertaining to histology ; but the amount of material in museums 

 is generally insufficient in quantity. Now it is undoubtedly 

 upon the quality aud quantity of material at command that the 

 value and completeness of the investigation very obviously depend. 

 Secondly : Although, hitherto, most scientific travellers follow the 

 same routine, and devote their time* and energies to collecting, 

 and that often in the field of several sciences, I cannot but think 

 that the time has arrived when this method should be abandoned, 

 and that in place of mere collecting or making collections, the 

 great aim of travel should he observation and investigation exercised 

 immediately, aud upon the spot. For this reason I believe that 

 the establishment of zoological stations in various parts of the 

 world corresponding to the regions in which its fauna is distributed 

 from being a fond hope or pious wish will, under the pressure of 

 absolute necessity turn into an accomplished fact 



The establishment of the Zoological Station in Naples, success- 

 ful as it has been, and attended with most important results, 

 offers us a proof and confirmation of what I have stated. 



But in addition to these two main reasons for looking upon 

 zoological stations in general as things of immediate necessity, 

 another presents itself from a different quarter. I mean the 

 circumstance, that next after the tropics (which are the richest 

 in animal life), the widest field offered to the investigator of 

 nature, and consequently the most suitable region for the establish- 

 ment of zoological stations, is Australia, with a fauna so 

 interesting, so important and so very far from sufficiently known, 

 especially as regards anatomy and embryology. Such a country 

 would be the place for a zoological station, or to speak more 

 correctly, for several such stations. 



But perhaps many of those whom I have the honor of address- 

 ing, while they will agree with me in most of the considerations 

 above submitted, and attach due importance to the Australian 

 fauna, and to the necessity of more thorough investigations of it 

 than collections and museums can supply, would ask me what is 

 to be understood by a zoological station ? 



