BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY. l27 



for carrying on marine investigations in the future, and all 

 those who had the opportunity of inspecting the arrange- 

 ments were able to express their complete satisfaction with 

 the manner in which its funds had been expended. 



Shortly after eleven o'clock Prof. Flowee, taking the Chair 

 in the absence of Prof. Huxley, delivered the following 

 address : 



Before entering upon the actual business of the day, I 

 must express my deep regret, which I am sure is shared by 

 everyone here, that the inauguration of this important 

 undertaking is not to be performed by one who in every 

 way would be best qualified for such an office. Our 

 President is not only the foremost biologist of the day, but 

 one whose great reputation as an original observer was first 

 established by that remarkable series of researches into the 

 structure of oceanic organisms conducted while serving as a 

 medical officer on board one of Her Majesty's ships, who 

 has since, amid all his varied avocations, been continually 

 associated, both officially and as a scientific investigator, 

 with problems concerning the life-history of marine animals, 

 who has been intimately connected with the working of this 

 Association since the day he presided over the meeting held 

 at Burlington House in 1884, at which it was first launched 

 into the world, and whose eloquent words would certainly 

 have added interest, pleasure, and instruction to such an 

 occasion as this. Nothing but the severe indisposition from 

 which he is now unhappily suffering would have prevented 

 his being here, as this Association is one in the success of 

 which he feels the deepest interest. Next to our President, 

 we also lament the absence from a similar cause of one who, 

 as Chairman of the Council, has worked hard to bring the 

 Association into its present successful condition, and who, 

 from his great experience of the conditions of animal and 

 plant life in the ocean, gained during the memorable voyage 

 of the '' Challenger," and his profound acquaintance with 

 the scientific aspects of all those questions the solution of 

 which we propose to ourselves, would have been eminently 

 fitted to perform the functions which I have been asked now 

 to undertake. 



