AMERICAN FISHERIES SOCIETY. 65 



A PLAN FOR THE INVESTIGATION OF THE BIOLOGY 

 OF THE GREAT LAKES. 



BY PROFESSOR JAC015 RKIGIIARD. 



It is not neoossary for me to point ont in detail to an as- 

 sembly like this how little we really know of the life in our 

 Great Lakes. We do not know fully the life history or the 

 food habits of any one of the commercial fishes. Much less do 

 we know of the life history, food habits or breeding habits of 

 the many animals and plants that surround these food fishes 

 and uj)on which they are dependent. 



In spite of this we are necessarily at work having laws made 

 for the control of the fisheries. SVe are, perhaps also neces- 

 sarily, spending large sums in artificial propagation. All this 

 we are doing without any adeiiuate knowledge of the materi- 

 als with which we are at work. 



It may be said that this, which is true of the fisheries, is 

 true also of many other undertakings; that the physician 

 knows very little of all thai is to be known of the physiology 

 of the human body — very little of all that is to be known of 

 the action of remedies on that body — but that in s})ite of this, 

 his work is, on the whole, of value. Like statements may, 

 with entire truth, be made about many other lines of human 

 activity. What w^e really know, compared with what we 

 might know, is but little in any direction. But let us assume 

 that we know as much of all that it is ])ossible to know of the 

 conditions of life in the Great Lakes as the physician knows 

 of all that might be known of the human body. And yet the 

 physician, without complete knowledge, often indeed with 

 very little .knowledge, reaches results, while the student of 

 the Great Lakes has yet to prove the benefits of either legis- 

 lative or fish-cultural doctoring. 



The reasons for this are not far to seek. In most affairs of 

 life we learn by experience what measures bring the desired 

 results. The ])hysician has abundant o]i]»ortunity to test his 

 medicines and to bring his tests to a sjx-edy conclusion. He 

 has most often learned what is good, not by scientific induc- 

 tion, but by experience. In other words, the art precedes the 

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