marine biological station at port erin. 197 



Concluding- Eemarks. 



As we have recorded, in the earlier part of this Report, 

 science students from our colleges are beginning to 

 attend the Biological Station for purposes of work. That 

 is very satisfactory ; but we shall not be content with 

 science students alone. We desire to interest and educate 

 the general public in Natural History, and to give all 

 university students opportunities of studying living nature. 

 Students of science study, to some slight extent at least, 

 Arts subjects — Literature, History, Languages, and, it 

 may be, Philosophy — but how very few of the ordinary 

 Arts students have even the most elementary acquaintance 

 with any experimental or natural science. Fortunately, 

 it is now becoming rare to hear an educated person 

 boasting of ignorance or indifference to science, but it is 

 still very unusual to find anyone who has received a non- 

 scientific education and who understands and appreciates 

 the natural phenomena by which he is surrounded. The 

 elements of nature-knowledge should surely always form 

 part of a liberal education ; and a most instructive portion 

 of the course on nature-knowledge would be a couple of 

 weeks spent amongst the researchers at a biological 

 station. It is a revelation and an inspiration to the 

 young student, or the inexperienced, to spend a forenoon 

 on the rocks exploring and collecting with specialists 

 who can point out at every turn the working of cause and 

 effect, adaptation to environment, and the results of 

 Evolution. It is equally instructive and inspiring to 

 have a day at the microscope with, say, our authority 

 on Copepoda, studying the nature and ways of animals 

 which are probably of greater economic importance to the 

 world than the wheat plains of Manitoba or the gold of 

 Klondike. 



