2 THE DIRECTOR S REPORT. 



from his pen which appears in this number is for the most part the 

 result of the work done by him under great difficulties, when the 

 Laboratory was still unfinished. Mr. Weldon, of St. John's College, 

 Cambridge, was engaged from time to time before the completion 

 of the building, when his work at Cambridge permitted him, on 

 the study of the Crustacea of the Sound, and the results of his 

 work will be published in due course. The Laboratory was 

 not ready for work, and the tanks in the aquarium were not ready 

 to receive marine animals before the spawning season of the 

 majority of fish and Crustacea of economic value was over, and 

 bence the subject of fish culture, to which great importance is 

 attached, has practically been in abeyance since the apparatus 

 necessary for it has been in place. 



Immediately after the Laboratory was opened several inquiries 

 were made by English naturalists as to the work that could 

 be done at Plymouth, and several gentlemen, whose names are 

 given in a Table below, came down to Plymouth for shorter or 

 longer periods, and were engaged in zoological research, some 

 of the results of which are given in the abstracts of this Journal. 

 None of these gentlemen were able to extend their visit beyond 

 September, and they had to experience the inconvenience of 

 working in a new institution in which the necessary routine had not 

 been formed by experience. At the present time, however, the 

 organisation of the Laboratory is far in advance of what it was in 

 September. 



It is most unfortunate that the majority of English naturalists 

 are so tied down by professional engagements that they cannot 

 make lengthy visits to what may justly be called the National 

 Marine Laboratory. In working out the life problems of any single 

 animal, a single month's residence near its habitat is not sufficient, 

 and when the research is extended to whole groups, many months, 

 and even years, of patient study are required. Dr. Dohrn's famous 

 station at Naples is tenanted year by year by naturalists from 

 different countries, but chiefly from Germany, who are sent there 

 to occupy one of the tables rented at a fixed annual charge by the 

 different Governments, universities, and learned societies. Were 

 this not the case the Naples Zoological Station, although its assured 

 income is greatly in excess of tbat of the Marine Biological Asso- 

 ciation, would not have the means to keep together such a staff of 

 naturalists as is required to produce the admirable scientific memoirs 

 frequently published by that institution. 



It is much to be desired that the universities, science colleges, 

 and learned societies of Great Britain will similarly aid the Marine 

 Biological Association by hiring tables at an annual rent, — fixed at 



