XXV 
Director’s Report.—No. III. 
Since the publication of the last number of this Journal six 
months have elapsed, and in so short a time no great development 
in an institution of the nature of this Laboratory can be expected. 
But the Laboratory has not yet reached its teens, and at the present 
early age a perceptible amount of growth and improvement should 
show itself from year to year, 
The number of gentlemen who have carried on researches here 
has shown no diminution, but has not sensibly increased. In one 
respect the list given below may be regarded as showing an 
improvement ;—it is not exclusively formed of zoologists.. Mr. 
Darnell-Smith, a chemist and naturalist, has been good enough to 
take up an investigation I suggested in my last Report, and his 
results concerning the action of Algze on the sea-water in which they 
live are most interesting. ‘They will be published in the next 
number of this Journal. It is to be hoped that the study of animal 
physiology will soon be undertaken here once more. The number 
of marine animals is very great, which, by reason of various degrees 
of transparency, allow their internal anatomy and the behaviour of 
internal organs in activity or in repose, under normal and abnormal 
conditions, to be seen during hfe. Many of such animals are highly 
convenient for microscopic examination, and there is no doubt that 
such objects are of great assistance in studying the functions of 
living digestive, secretory, excretory, and, in fact, all the cells of 
the different systems of organs. Work of this kind has already 
been done on fresh-water and marine animals, but the immense 
variety of the transparent animals in the sea seems to afford special 
advantages. Material of this nature is constantly being brought 
into the Laboratory. 
For some time past no scientific men from abroad have visited 
the Laboratory for any length of time. With all due respect to 
the ‘ big brother”? at Naples, I would lke to remind those whose 
eye this may meet that there is a time of the year when Naples is 
hardly a desirable place of residence, and that Plymouth is just at 
this time one of the most attractive spots in England. ‘The 
