PLANKTONIC STUDIES. 629 



daj'" (23, p. 516). Meoinvliile Brandt, explaininfi' tlie ''highly original 

 procedure" of Hensen (''turning attention to attacking a problem, the 

 solution of which no one had ever thought of"), remarks, with refer- 

 ence to the foregoing quantitative analysis of the Atlantic i)laidcton 

 expedition of the Xational (1889), ''that the very much more manifold 

 ocean catches will consume presumably twice as much time, and since 

 on the plankton voyage at least 120 such catches were made, then the 

 working out of these (quite apart from the preliminary preparations) 

 will fully occupy an investigator for 120 x 14: days, or about 6 years" 

 (23, p. sio).* 



Opinions respecting the significance and the value of the oceanic 

 po]»ulation statistics of Hensen are very different. E. du Bois-Key- 

 mond, in his paper before the Berlin Academy (21, p, 83), t attributes 

 to it extraordinary importance, "wherefore the uncommon sacrifice 

 made for it was justified." According to his opinion, the plankton 

 expedition of the Kational, arranged for this purpose, within its defi- 

 nite limits, from the novelty and beauty of its well-described task, 

 assumes a unique i)la(;e, and the Humboldt fund ought to be proud at 

 having been among the first to contribute to its execution" (21, p. 87). 

 On the ground of this honorable recognition, as well as of the great 

 hopes which the naturalist of Kiel himself based upon the results of 

 the National expedition, numerous notices have appeared in German 

 newspapers, disseminating the view that an entirely new field of 

 scientific investigation had been thereby actually' entered upon, and 

 that a further extension of it was of great importance. I am sorry to 

 say that I can not agi'ce with tin's very favorable conception, 



DISTEIBI TION OF THE PLANKTON. 



The foundation upon which the entire planktonic conception and 

 computation of Hensen rests is the view "that in the ocean the plank- 

 ton must be regularly distributed; that from a few catches very safe 

 estimates can be made upon the condition of Very great areas of the 

 sea" (22, p. 243). As Hensen himself says, he started with this '■'■purely 

 theoretical view,"^ and he believes that a completely successful result is 

 to be had, because these theoretical premises have been more fully 



^According to this; the unfortunate plankton counter would in these 120 catches 

 have to count for over 17,000 hours. How such an arithmetical Danaida? work can 

 he carried through without ruin of mind and body I can not conceive. 



tin the introduction to this noteworthy paper Du Bois-Reymond says that since 

 1882 Hensen ''had been mindful that, especially on the surface of the sea, there was 

 found a more unequally numerous population of uunutest liviug forms than had 

 previously been supposed" (21, p. 83). This remark needs correction, because many 

 times in the celebrated log l)ook of the Naiiondl plankton expedition this has been 

 overlooked, and therefore it lias wroiiyly been inferred that Hensen eight years ago 

 was the first to discover the existence and ahunduuee of the pelagic fauna and flora. In 

 fact, for forty-five years they have been the object of wonder and study for numerous 

 naturalists. 



