INTRODUCTION. IX. 



C. Punnett, will probably be out early in 1901. Others, 

 such as the Oyster, Sag-itta, and the Plaice, are in active 

 preparation. 



I would say in conclusion, in issuing* this fifth volume 

 of our Reports which brings the record of the L.M.B.C. 

 work down to the end of its sixteenth year, that although 

 our Honorary Treasurer, Mr. Isaac Thompson, wants more 

 money for many purposes, such as a larger laboratory 

 at Port Erin, a fish hatchery, a gas engine and pumps, 

 and a larger boat (and, of course, I agree with him that 

 these needs exist and are pressing), still what I even more 

 earnestly desire to see is more workers. The subject of 

 Marine Biology is as wide and as varied as the sea that 

 environs it, and it bristles with problems of every descrip- 

 tion. The collector and classifier, the observer of habits, 

 the investigator of life-histories, the morphologist studying 

 structure and the physiologist function, the bacteriologist 

 and the chemico-biologist, the most transcendental evo- 

 lutionist, and even the humble but necessary speciographer, 

 whom it is the fashion now, in some quarters, to despise and 

 deride, will all find in our local Oceanography an ample 

 field for their special researches. Here is work for many 

 minds and many hands for many a year to come. 



W. A. Herdman. 



University ( 'ollege, 

 Liverpool, November, 1900. 



