1885.] Prof. Lanhester on a Marine Biohxjical Lahoratory. 215 



WEEKLY EVENING MEETING, 



Friday, February 27, 1885. 



Henry Pollock, Esq. in tlie Chair. 



Professor Eay Lankester, M.A. LL.D. F.R.S. 



A Marine Biological Laboratory, 



The lecturer stated that he had been invited, as Secretary of the 

 Marine Biological Association, of which Professor Huxley was 

 President, H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, Patron, and all our leading 

 naturalists members, to explain the objects of the Association. The 

 immediate purpose of the Association was to erect a laboratory 

 on the sea-coast where naturalists might resort for the purpose of 

 studying, with the aid of the best possible ajiparatus and other 

 facilities, the structure and life-history of marine })lants and animals. 



This study was not only important as a rapidly growing branch 

 of science, but had value for the practical man, in that the proper 

 management of our sea-fisheries must dei)end on the knowledge gained 

 in such laboratories as that about to be erected. 



The lecturer then gave some account of an investigation made by 

 him into the causes of the colour of the " green beard " oysters, or 

 huitres de Marenne, as an example of the kind of work which would 

 be carried on in a marine laboratory, and of the ap^jaratus needed for 

 such work. 



He then mentioned what had been done by other countries in the 

 way of providing laboratories on the sea-coast. The governments of 

 France and the United States were especially signalised as having 

 recognised the commercial and national imj^ortance of a thorouo-]ily 

 scientific study of sea-fishes and shell-fish, the latter giving now a 

 yearly grant of seventy tliousand jjounds to Professor Baird for the 

 jmrpose of laboratories and experiments in fisli-culture. The admir- 

 able marine laboratory organised at Naples by Dr. Dolirn, and tho 

 smaller institutions at Trieste, at Newport and Beaufort, US. A. 

 were described. Drawings of the Naples laboratory and of that at 

 Wood's Holl, U.S.A. were exhibited. 



A map of Plymouth Sound was then referred to, and the 

 advantages of Plymouth as a site for a marine laboratory were 

 explained — being these, viz. the occurrence of a varied and abundant 

 faima in the waters of the Sound and the presence of a large fleet of 

 fishing boats. The Marine Biological Association had obtained per- 

 mission to erect a laboratory upon an admirable site on the Citadel 



