MARINE BIOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION. 29 



the streams of science are full that their overflowing pro- 

 duces fertility to the land upon their banks. The marine 

 laboratories, such as those we wish to see founded, should 

 not primarily be established to bring an increased supply 

 of fish to our frying-pans and fish-kettles. Their main 

 purpose should be to examine the development and habits 

 of all forms of marine life, so as to give the biologist a 

 better insight into the laws which govern their existence. 

 I would take as an example the laboratory of my friend 

 Mr. Agassiz, at Newport, in Rhode Island. He is a man 

 of ample fortune, and spends it nobly in the advancement 

 of science. His laboratory for studying marine biology is 

 purely a scientific one, and the idea of practical utility has 

 probably never crossed his brain. Yet it is one of the 

 invariable consequences of the fulness of science that it 

 does reward the nation or individual who prosecutes it in a 

 disinterested spirit with many material advantages. Per- 

 haps you will allow me to draw an illustration from my 

 frequent visits to America of how science can, and does 

 repay the study of marine life. The American Government 

 gives much support to a Commission of Fisheries, under 

 the presidency of Professor Baird. The Commission's 

 object in this case is practical, though the practical results 

 are attained by scientific methods and scientific study. 

 These have already repaid the State a thousandfold its wise 

 expenditure. I have only time to give two instances. The 

 cod is a most important fish for the coast of North America • 

 but the cod loves the colder coasts of British America more 

 than the warmer shores of the United States. The grey 

 cod used to be only a winter fish in the bays of the States • 

 for in summer it goes to Newfoundland, to get the cooler 

 waters of the Arctic stream. Nothing would appear more 

 hopeless than to alter the habits of fish ; but science is 

 never discouraged as long as she works within natural laws 

 and even this has been accomplished. The cod is a most 

 prolific fish, as a full-sized one weighing 99 lbs. has as 

 many as 9,000,000 eggs. The artificial incubation of these 

 is now so well understood in the hatching ponds of the 

 States, that it is carried on with perfect success. Let us 



