July 1 8, 1889] 



NATURE 



281 



MARINE BIOLOGY IN THE UNITED STATES. 



'X*HERE has recently been issued the first Annual 

 -'• Report of the Marine Biological Laboratory at 

 Wood's Holl, Mass. The Laboratory is an outgrowth of 

 a smaller predecessor maintained at Annisquam, Mass., 

 for six years, by the Woman's Education Association of 

 Boston, in co-operation with the Boston Society of Natural 

 History ; and the locality where it is pitched is one 

 which has been in especial favour with marine zoologists 

 of the New World, from Alex. Agassiz downwards. The 

 edifice is a small one (63 x 28 feet), two stories high, of 

 plain but very substantial build. It has been especially 

 designed for the purpose to which it is put, and there are 

 eight private rooms available for the use of investigators. 

 Conspicuous among the names of those chiefly concerned 

 in its maintenance are those of persons known to be 

 familiar with the workings of the leading biological 

 laboratories abroad; and Dr. C. O.Whitman, of Milwaukee, 

 has accepted the office of Honorary Director. It is thus 

 manifest that, in the selection of those who are to control 

 the working of their enterprise, the promoters have 

 secured the services of those of their countrymen whose 

 influence would be most conducive to a successful issue. 



The Laboratory is regarded by the Director as a "first 

 step towards the estabhshment of an ideal biological 

 station, organized on a basis broad enough to represent 

 all important features of the several types of laboratories 

 hitherto known in Europe and America." In a very 

 interesting opening address, the same gentleman lays it 

 down as a tenet that " a biological station should be a 

 purely scientific affair from beginning to end," and the 

 spirit of his words appears to have entered into the very 

 organization of the institution over which he presides. 

 Competent investigators not requiring instruction are 

 invited to carry on their researches free of charge, and a 

 small fee is asked only of those whose work requires 

 supervision ; while, with a view to developing the 

 resources of the country, provision is made for the con- 

 ducting of short seven weeks' courses of instruction in 

 marine zoology and microscopical technique. Arrange- 

 ments are also to be made for the delivery of " occasional 

 lectures, or informal accounts of results obtained in special 

 lines of research carried on at the Laboratory." 



The above-named short courses of instruction are no 

 mere vacation ones, whereby the Laboratory would be in 

 danger of conversion into a summer rendezvous, but 

 recognized portions of a working scheme ; and, in pro- 

 viding for them, our American brethren have taken 

 a new and most important departure in the advance of 

 biological education, and one upon which we ourselves 

 might well act. To many of us it has long been obvious 

 that our own methods of teaching elementary biology are 

 being overstrained. The type-system, in which we justly 

 glory, is being pushed to an extreme not dreamt of by its 

 founders ; but while some such method must always be 

 relied upon for a first beginning, we stand in need of a sup- 

 plementary system, whereby there may be assured to the 

 advanced student a field of labour less restricted than that 

 now largely adopted. We would have him brought face 

 to face with unfamiliar forms of hfe — forms of which he 

 might probably never have heard — and left to himself 

 (competent assistance being accessible in case of emer- 

 gency) to identify and to determine them. The student is, 

 at present, nurtured on too great a regard for authority ; he 

 is taught to rely too fully upon his teacher, and his powers 

 of independent judgment become thereby stunted ; and, 

 unless some means be taken to dispel this delusion, the 

 systematic work of even the near future must suffer. We 

 are of opinion that the remedy is to be found in some such 

 action as that instituted by the officers of the Wood's 

 Holl Laboratory. We need more field-work, and the 

 advanced student should be compelled to supplement 

 the special training which he now receives with, say, a 



two to three months' course at the sea-side. Many of our 

 existing schools are already located in situations favour- 

 able to the requirements of the case, but their movements 

 are so hampered by the demands of the narrow " syllabus " 

 that little opportunity is left them for the development of 

 their special resources. Setting these institutions aside,, 

 however, we believe that access to a fully equipped labora- 

 tory is not a sine quA non for the fulfilment of that which 

 we desire. It is true that " any enthusiastic young person 

 who may unfold his umbrella on the sea-shore " cannot be 

 said to have " opened a zoological station " ; but it is none 

 the less certain that a born biologist will pursue his 

 calling even under a sunshade, and it should be one of the 

 highest aims of our educational system to single him out. 

 To this end, let the student found his own laboratory in a 

 convenient room in some good locality ; set him to collect, 

 to identify, and to preserve ; let him rely upon his 

 ingenuity for the construction and arrangement of his 

 accessories ; give him ample opportunity to make the 

 most of the resources of the surface-net ; and leave the 

 rest to nature. The student who, granted a previous sound 

 elementary training, free of bias, would most readily rise 

 to the emergencies of the case we picture, would be he to 

 whom we would most confidently intrust the future de- 

 velopment of our science ; and it cannot be denied that 

 our existing methods of training fall short as a sure means 

 of securing him. 



Our American brethren are content with humble be- 

 ginnings. Their Laboratory is small, but it is managed 

 as such an institution should be. We believe our 

 dream to be indicative of a general want; and, should 

 its realization ever come about, to the women of the 

 United States will be due the honour of having inaugur- 

 ated a recognized system of training such as, to us, seems 

 most desirable for its attainment. Better this than empty 

 glory in a costly edifice. 



Young as is the Wood's Holl Laboratory, a record is 

 published, without ostentation, of work commenced in 

 five definite subjects, and efforts are being made to 

 establish a scholarship fund in connection witli the insti- 

 tution. The citizens of the United States are now striving 

 by private enterprise to do, for the pure science of 

 aquatic biology, that which their legislators have so nobly 

 done for the fish industries. We heartily wish them 

 success. G. B. H. 



NOTES. 



The next International Archaeological Congress is to be held 

 in Christiania in 189 1. It was originally intended that it should 

 be held in London. Dr. Ingvald Undseih, of Christiania, is 

 the General Secretary. 



More than 500 members will take part in the forthcoming 

 Oriental Congress in Stockholm, among them being official 

 delegates from Egypt, Persia, India, Siam, China, and Japan. 

 Two famous Arabic scholars of Medina — Mahomed Mahmud 

 and Mahomed Chingttbi— will also be present. 



The programme of the second summer meeting of University 

 Extension students and others, to be held in Oxford next month, 

 is now published. The programme, as compared with last year's, 

 shows one remarkable difference. The summer meeting of this 

 year is to be divided into two parts, the first of which, lasting 

 from Tuesday, July 30, to Friday, August 9, reproduces the 

 main features of the meeting of last year — meetings, conversa- 

 ziones, excursions, lectures and visits to libraries, museums, and 

 so forth. On the list of lecturers appear the names of Prof. 

 Max Miiller, Sir Robert Ball, Mr. Herkomer, Mr. Lewis Morris, 

 Prof. Henry Morley, Mr. W. J. Courthope, Mrs. Fawcett, 

 Prof. Thorold Rogers, Prof. Pritchard, Prof. A. H. Green, 



