• INTRODUCTION. Ixvii 



extensive deep-sea explorations in tlio North Atlantic, which were so successful and 

 full of interest as to stimulate the British government to equip and send out, under 

 the scientific direction of Wyville Thompson, aided hy W. von Suhm, Moseley and 

 others, tlie ' Challenger,' which made a voyage around the globe in 1872-7(3. 



The results were full proof of the existence, in all seas throughout the world, of a 

 fauna unique and extensive, generally known as the abyssal fauna, thus adding a new 

 world of life, with previously unknown orders of animals, involving new ])roblems in 

 paleontology and biology, and immeasurably extending our conceptions of the world 

 and its inhabitants and their mutual relations. The voluminous results of this most 

 important of all tlie voyages of scientific discovery, since that of Columbus, are still 

 incomplete. Important additions to the facts gathered by the 'Challenger' and pre- 

 vious explorations, have been made by the Swedish expedition of the 'Josephine,' the 

 naturalists of which were Smith and Ljungmann, and by the U. S. Commission of Fish 

 and Fisheries, S. F. Baird, Commissioner, of which A. E. Verrill, in charge of the in- 

 vertebrates, has from time to time ])ublished important results. 



The Austrian, Portuguese, and French governments have sent out similar expedi- 

 tions, of which, perhaps, the voyage of the ' Talisman,' in 1883, obtained the richest 

 results, A. Milne-Edwards being the naturalist in charge. 



Extensive researches with the dredge along the coast of the United States were made 

 by Agassiz, Desor, and especially Stimpson, from the Bay of Fundy, to Florida, Cuba, 

 and Yucatan ; Packard investigated the shoal-water fauna of Labrador in 1860-64 ; 

 while Verrill, Hyatt, Packard, and others have dredged the coast from the Gulf of St. 

 Lawrence to Cape Hatteras. 



The economic value attached to the fisheries led to the formation of the Fisheries 

 Commissions of Norway, Germany, and the United States ; that of the latter, under 

 Baird, being especially rich in purely scientific results. 



The ravages of injurious insects, involving economic questions of vast moment, 

 have attracted attention from time inmiemorial. The destruction of crops and of 

 forests by these pests led Ratzeburg to devote his life to the subject, resulting in the 

 l>reparation of the monumental tomes, richly illustrated and replete with facts, which 

 have given him an enduring fame. The works of Bouche, Boisduval, and others in 

 Europe, and of Harris in this country, are also classics. 



In America, the state governments established the office of state entomologists, 

 whose reports, particularly those of Fitch, Walsh, and Riley, are standard works 

 of reference. The invasion of locusts in the western states and territories led 

 the national government to establish the U. S. Entomological Commission, consisting 

 of Riley, Packard, and Thomas, which existed for five years (1877-81). 



In 1873 Agassiz established at Penikese, an island in Buzzard's Bay, a seaside labor- 

 atory for teachers and for students of marine animals. After two years it ceased to 

 exist. It led to the formation of the Chesapeake Zoological Laboratory of the Johns 

 Hopkins LTniversity, under the direction of Prof. W. K. Brooks, while Mr. A. Agassiz 

 built a well-appointed jirivate laboratory at Newport. Led by Agassiz's example, 

 Anton Dohrn established the costly zoological station at Naples, where gather natural- 

 ists of different countries, whose researches, carried on under such favorable auspices, 

 have had a manifest influence on morphological studies. Smaller laboratories have 

 been established by Lacaze Duthlers at Roseoff, Banyul sur Mer in France, and by 

 Hyatt at Annisquam, in Massachusetts; while during the years 1876-81 a summer 

 school of biology founded liy Packard, was carried on by the Peabody Academy of 

 Science at Salem, Massachusetts. 



