36 HISTOEY OF THE FOUNDATION OF THE 



There was no country in the world which had contributed 

 so much to the knowledge of algee as England. He thought 

 there were no scientific bodies who would not take the 

 liveliest interest in the efforts of the new Society, and 

 that its foundation was full of promise for the future of 

 biology. 



Professor Moseley, F.R.S.^ observed that it was only by 

 means of a regular station, at which systematic work could 

 be carried out continuously, that any progress could be 

 made in the investigation of the conditions of our coast. 

 The work already done had been done in an unconnected 

 way. The difficulty of investigating some of our com- 

 monest animals would be understood when he mentioned 

 that a scientific friend of his for many years had wished to 

 work out the development of the common limpet, of which 

 as yet nothing was known. This animal was one of the 

 most important of the Mollusca, both scientifically and com- 

 mercially. His friend had been to the coast at various 

 seasons to get the eggs and watch their development, but 

 had failed, and up to this day this most important piece of 

 work had never been accomplished. Under the new Society 

 they would, during the very first year of the continuous 

 working of a laboratory, get to know pretty thoroughly 

 the development of the limpet. He did not think that any 

 investigation not of a strictly scientific character was of 

 much value with regard to practical results. It was only 

 by the most thorough scientific work that we should ever 

 arrive at the increasing of our supplies of oysters and lob- 

 sters. This year most interesting results have been 

 obtained in the United States with regard to the oyster. 

 With regard to the furtherance of biological science gene- 

 rally, the more they understood animal life the more they 

 found that all animals had gone through a littoral phase. 

 Animals may have originated in the open sea, but all 

 animals seem to have passed through a littoral stage. 

 From the littoral condition of animals are derived all the 

 animals of the deep sea. All terrestrial animals have come 

 from the shores. Even in man himself there were struc- 

 tures in the embryonic state only to be explained on the 



