628 ENDOWMENT FOR SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH. 



tlie world. It is maintained by a charge of $500 per year upon 

 each table occupied, each occupant being entitled to all the ad- 

 vantages of the institution. Of these tables, the German States for 

 several years have taken thirteen ; Italy, eight; Austria, Eussia, Spain, 

 and England, each three; Switzerland, Belginni and Holland, each 

 one; the United States, until 1801, none, except one table supported 

 by Williams College for two years, and one by the University of Penn- 

 sylvania for one year. Prior to that time about fifteen other American 

 students in all had obtained places at the tables taken and paid for by 

 other nations. In 1890, this arrangement was prohibited by the admin- 

 istration of the institution; and the right to a table in 1801, was secured 

 to Americans, only through the private benefaction of Maj. Alex. 

 Henry Davis, of Syracuse. For the year 1892, the use of a table has 

 been secured through a subscription started by the American Associa- 

 tion for the Advancement of Science, toward which the Association 

 itself granted out of its scanty funds $100 and was the means, I be- 

 lieve, of procuring the rest.* 



We have not however been wholly without some such means of 

 study in this country through the marine biological laboratories estab- 

 lished some years ago at Newport and at Wood's Holl, by Prof. Alex. 

 Agassiz. The former has been now enlarged so as to accommodate 

 eight advanced students, besides the i^rofessor and his assistant.! The 

 Johns Hopkins University also has supplied some opportunities of this 

 kind by its summer school, formerly at Beaufort; later, at Jamaica; 

 but at present, as I understand, it is without any permanent location. 



Our neighbor, the Brooklyn Institute, has organized similar investi- 

 gations, on a minor scale, during the summer months at different places 

 on Long Island. But what is needed for the most effective work, is 

 suitable endowments for jirofessors and advanced students, in eonuec- 

 tion with an adequate biological laboratory, such as the Newport one 

 enlarged might afford, equal in means and equipment to that at Naples, 

 or at least to that recently completed, largely through private enter- 

 prise, at Plymouth. England. J 



* See Proc. American Association. A. S. 1891, vol. XL, p. 449-451. 

 t Rejwrt Harvard Col., 1891, p. 182. 



tin liis address before the American Association for tlie Advancement of Science, 

 in 1891, President Prescott, referring to this general subject, said: 



"To nurture investigation in science is the largest opportunity before the American 

 people. Research, systematic and wisely directed, requires good organization and 

 strong support, the support of many powers. It must have the support of able and 

 persistent men. It needs the conference of workers, and the dissemination of knowl- 

 edge in societies like this. It wants the interest and the confidence of the public. 

 It asks and will always obtain the constant, helpful nsc of the press. It requires 

 distinct provision in colleges, and in the institutions of higher education. It ought 

 to be sustained expressly by the Government, both in the several States and under 

 the United States, and sustained on broad and iiermanent foundations. Still, it 

 needs private benelaotions. Research is the giowth of years. Let it be the demand 

 of all, and let this call find utterance everywhere." — Proceedings Am. ^S80c.,1891, vol. 

 XL, p. 440. ' • 



