8 FIRST REPORT 



of the state, where, during the summer vacations, they could 

 gain that knowledge of facts and methods at first hand so 

 much needed by many of them to enable them to properly 

 teach botany, physiology and zoology. The mere associa- 

 tion of such teachers with the students carrying on original 

 investigations would be of incalculable value. 



For a number of years marine biological stations, usually 

 called zoological stations, have offered opportunities for the 

 study of marine life in various parts of the world and have 

 annually attracted great scientists from all civilized countries. 

 The enthusiasm and satisfaction with which their work has 

 been received in every civilized community, and the practical re- 

 sults traceable to their influence are a sufficient justification for 

 their existence. Indeed to-day they are just as much a nec- 

 essity as the university laboratories. While the number of 

 marine biological stations has increased to ten or more, the 

 establishment of fresh-water biological stations has been 

 attempted in but few places, so that to-day only one or two 

 properly equipped are in existence in Europe, and none in 

 this country. The reasons for the preferences thus indicated 

 may briefly be stated to be: — (1) Man's desire to discover, and 

 to see that about which he knows nothing from direct observa- 

 tion. (2) The fact that hitherto the problems in zoology have 

 been largely morphological problems, and these point to the 

 seas for solutions. For in the oceans we see the vast original 

 home with a uniformity and constancy of environment and 

 gradual transitions not met with elsewhere. Moreover the 

 oceans are so densely populated that t-e patient and thought- 

 ful investigator has never been disappointed. 



There is, however, abundant evidence on hand in the works 

 of great men showing that not even all the morphological 

 problems are to find their solutions in the study of only marine 

 forms, and that what we would expect on a priori grounds 

 actual observation and investigation demonstrate. And while 

 the conditions of life in the ocean may be characterized as 

 quite uniform, those on land and in fresh-water must be char- 

 acterized as very variable, and consequently demanding more 

 varied adaptations and thus naturally leading to a higher 

 development. In view of this it becomes evident that the 

 problems relating more particularly to the physiological side 

 of living things are to \)e solved principally at fresh-water 

 stations and not at marine stations. The fresh- water biologi- 

 cal laboratory therefore has a special field of work in phys- 



