132 OPENING or THE MARINE 



selected the site for their first Laboratory, and as snch he 

 gratefully accepted the duty, and would do the best he 

 could to do justice to it. Before making any remarks as to 

 the work which was to be performed in that Laboratory, he 

 might perhaps be allowed — and he was sure that the Mayors 

 of Plymouth and Devonport would join with him — to wish a 

 hearty welcome to the distinguished company present to 

 the West of England, and to express the hope that the 

 Laboratory which Professor Flower had opened with such an 

 admirable and instructive address that morning would 

 attract scientific men like themselves to pay constant visits 

 to the town and neighbourhood. It was not necessary for 

 him to explain the importance and interest of the present 

 occasion. If he wished to call witnesses he should merely 

 ask them to look at the company assembled around the 

 hospitable board of the Worshipful Company of Fish- 

 mongers. And if they had any doubts as to the practical 

 value of the work, any such doubts would be dissipated by 

 the simple fact that they found the Prime Warden and his 

 colleagues coming from the atmosphere of actual work on 

 the banks of the Thames to found this interesting Laborator}^ 

 If, on the other hand, he wished to call witnesses as to the 

 probable scientific value of the work, he should merely have 

 to appeal to the revered and well-known names of many 

 gentlemen around him, and among them the directors of the 

 great national institutions at South Kensington and Kew, 

 and to show what they at any rate anticipated w^ould be the 

 results of the investigations which would be conducted under 

 the care of the able superintendent and his assistants. There 

 was, in fact, such a consensus of opinion, both from a practical 

 and scientific point of view, of the value of the work that 

 would be done there, that the thing which surprised him 

 was why it had not been done before. How was it that 

 we, who more than any other nation in the globe reaped 

 the richest harvest from the sea, had never yet endeavoui'ed 

 scientifically to inquire into the sources of this great 

 industry and article of food ? How was it that we had 

 lagged behind other nations, some of whom might be almost 

 regarded as inland countries ? France, he believed, had 



