324 NATURAL SCIENCE. Nov.. 



deeper waters, who so often owes all his knowledge to the scalpel and 

 the microtome. 



It is partly with the object of remedying this state of things that 

 marine laboratories have been built in many parts of the world, and 

 many of these offer admirable facilities for the prosecution of a 

 veritable biology or study of life in living organisms. But the mere 

 existence of these laboratories is not the only thing required, and this 

 is easily shown by the contrast between our own and other countries. 

 To make the comparison simple, we need only draw attention to two 

 marine laboratories, both on the shores of the English Channel and 

 on exactly the same meridian, but one in England and one in France 

 — namely, the establishments at Plymouth and Roscoff. At Plymouth 

 the coast is more favourable, the fauna is richer, while the building 

 is finer and more richly equipped than is the case at Roscoff. From 

 the Plymouth laboratory there proceeds every year a large quantity 

 of work of much practical value to the English fisheries ; so far as 

 these observations are concerned, we compare very favourably with 

 our neighbours. But when we consider the amount of purely biological 

 investigation that is carried on at these laboratories, and the numbers 

 of zoologists that come to them, a calm examination of the facts will 

 show a very large balance on the side of the French. The Roscoff 

 laboratory is thronged every summer, not merely with students, but 

 with investigators from all parts of the world, including England, 

 while the same may be said of the corresponding laboratory at 

 Banyuls in the south of France. 



There may be various reasons for this state of things ; but there 

 are two at least which are perfectly obvious. The first is the simple 

 question of cost. To work for a month at Plymouth the student 

 must pay £^ for his table, he will be charged extra for all above 

 a small allowance for material and reagents, he will have to take 

 lodgings in the town, and, when he leaves, he will doubtless make 

 some suitable present to the attendants. At Roscoff during the same 

 period, the student is charged nothing for the use of the table, he is 

 permitted as much of the various reagents, even of absolute alcohol, 

 as any reasonable man can want, he can have a bedroom at the 

 laboratory, and, when he leaves, he will only be expected to leave 

 behind him ten francs for the attendant and fifteen francs for the 

 servant that looks after his bedroom. 



The second reason is that the Roscoff laboratory is not an 

 independent establishment, but is intimately connected with the 

 Sorbonne and managed by one of its eminent Professors, H. de 

 Lacaze Duthiers. Consequently the pupils of the Sorbonne go there 

 to work before they have passed their Licentiate examination, and 

 naturally continue to work either there or at Banyuls when preparing 

 for their doctorate. With this nucleus it is not so difficult for the 

 authorities to open their doors in the above-described hospitable 

 fashion to all bond fide investigators, whose presence is as great a 



