A MARINE UNIVERSITY. 



By W. K. GiiEGOin', 



AKxi^^ldiil (<> I'rof. II. F. Oshurit, nf the Aini-rira)i Mii.!<e.nin of Xalnnil Ilittlor;/, Xcir York. 



[While the jilan of tliis article, an<l especially tiie introductory and concluding 

 paragraphs, is original, tlie rest is largely adapted and extracted from an article in 

 Harper's Monthly Magazine for March, 1902, by Professor Osborn, for some time 

 president of the trustees of the Marine Biological Laboratory, suijplenn'nted by 

 extracts from the ninth rejiort of the Marine Biological Laboratory ff)r the years 

 1896-1899, and from Prof. E. G. Conklin's article in Science, March 2, 1900.] 



The prevailing spii-it sit Woods Hole is the spirit of exploration. 

 The pnre delio-ht of discovery sustained Darwin in his classic voyage 

 on the BciKjle and Iliixley in his cruise on the Rdtth'smil-c. These 

 great names indorse the statement that even in themselves, from the 

 simple natural history standpoint, the phenomena of marine life are 

 worthy of intimate and ardent study. But Darwin is forever famous 

 not cliieHy for his liiV-long natural history observations, hut for tiie 

 grand theory gleaned therefrom — the theory of evolution by means of 

 natural selection; and the most enduring monuments to Huxley are 

 not oidy his brilliant contributions to S} stematic zoology, but espe- 

 cially his clear statement of all life phenomena as essentially protoplasm 

 l)henomena. Accordingly the spirit of exploration at Woods Hole 

 manifests itself in the sinudtaneous pursuit of {n) natural history and 

 evolution, and (/>) l)iology, the study of the nature of life itself as 

 found in protoplasm. 



The enthusiasm for natural history at the Marine Biological Labo- 

 ratory is in part an inheritance from Ix)uis Agassiz, who may l)c 

 considered in a sense as its foimder. With Carl Vogt, of (Jeneva, 

 Huxley, Dohrn, and other great naturalists, Agassiz realized the 

 important residts which would How from the study of marine life in 

 the living and fresh condition allorded oidy by a close proximity to 

 the seashore. This idea ha[)p!ly culminated in 1S7<>, when I'rof. Anton 

 Dohrn foimded the beautiful and resourceful station of Niii)les — the 

 great Mecca of all students of marine life. 



Agassiz brought with him, therefore, to Ameiica, ah)ng with his 

 other enthusiasms that for marine stations. In 1ST8 an ekKjuent 



625 

 SM 1!J02 4{) 



