THE DIEECTOR S REPORT. 3 



£40 per annum, — and sending tlieir rising naturalists to Plymouth 

 as yearly occupants of such tables. By doing this they will not 

 only aid the progress of the Association and the extension of an 

 accurate and reliable knowledge of all that concerns the denizens of 

 the sea, but they will ensure to themselves a thoroughness and 

 an enthusiasm on the part of those students on their return to 

 scholastic or other duties, which can only be obtained by an 

 extended study of the subject-matter of their science, free from the 

 cares and interruptions of teaching work, and by constant commu- 

 nication with their fellow-workers in kindred branches of study. 

 The effect of the enlightened patronage of the German States on the 

 progress of zoological science in that country cannot be over- 

 estimated, and the impetus that has recently been given to the same 

 subject in France, America, Austria, and Holland by the foundation 

 of marine stations in those countries is equally remarkable. It is 

 to be hoped that now that a really efficient laboratory exists on the 

 coast of England, means will be found to enable English naturalists 

 to take advantage of its resources. 



The Association is definitely pledged, in consideration of a grant 

 from H.M. Government, to concern itself with economic questions 

 relating to our fisheries. Mr. Cunningham's paper is a sufficient 

 evidence that the pledge is being fulfilled. But it must be observed 

 that practical investigations of this kind, whilst they differ from 

 those which have a purely scientific object only in the end to be 

 obtained, and not in the methods to be employed, require a more 

 comprehensive survey of the phenomena under consideration, and 

 therefore a more extensive experience of their occurrence. 



The object of every " scientific '^ investigation is to trace certain 

 effects to their causes, and whereas in the case of a non-practical 

 question it may be permissible to study the influence of a single 

 force upon a fish or other organism, neglecting for the time other 

 forces of equal or perhaps of greater importance, the solution of a 

 " practical " question depends on the sum of many influences, 

 acting, it may be, with varying intensities for various periods on 

 the organism which is being" in"^eBtigated. The organism, its 

 structure, life-history, habits, and abundance is the resultant of many 

 such intermittent, unequal, and sometimes antagonistic forces. A 

 " practical '^ investigation, then, differs from a " theoretical " only 

 in its greater complexity and in the larger amount of accurate 

 knowledge required for its objects,- — practical investigations are 

 nothing but scientific investigations of the highest possible order. 

 A scientific opinion upon fishery questions must be founded upon 

 such a number and variety of observations as to be equivalent to a 

 statement of fact, and those who act upon the opinion, whether 



