20 WILLIAM KEITH BROOKS 



given to the investigation of the simpler forms of life, with confidence 

 that this will ultimately contribute to a clearer insight into all vital 

 phenomena. 



The oldest forms of life are marine: every great group of animals is 

 represented in the ocean, while many important and instructive groups 

 have no terrestrial representatives; omitting the insects, more than four- 

 fifths of the known species of animals are marine, and the total amount 

 of animal life in the ocean is incomparably greater than upon the land. 

 In a word, the ocean is now, as it has been at all stages in the earth's 

 history, the home of life; and it is there, and there only, that we find the 

 living representatives of the oldest fossils, and are thus enabled to study 

 the continuous history of life from its simplest to its most complex 

 manifestations. 



On the sand flats at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, we find, living 

 side by side, animals like Lingula/Amphioxus, Limulus and Balanoglos- 

 sus, which are the representatives of some of the oldest and most primi- 

 tive types of animal life ; and all attempts to trace out the natural rela- 

 tionships of any group of animals, lead us at once to forms which are 

 found only in the ocean. 



The animals which have contributed most extensively to the formation 

 of the earth's crust, the corals and foraminifera and radiolarians, abound 

 in the ocean to-day, and it is only by studying their life, by observations 

 at the seashore, that we can understand and interpret their geological 

 influence. 



Nearly every one of the great generalizations of morphology is based 

 upon the study of marine animals, and most of the problems which are 

 now awaiting a solution must be answered in the same way. 



For these reasons our chief aim in zoology and animal morphology 

 has been to provide means for research upon the marine animals of the 

 Atlantic coast, and for nine years, successive parties, composed of instruc- 

 tors, fellows and students in this department, together with instructors 

 and advanced students from other institutions have spent at the sea- 

 shore all the months in which marine work is practicable. Their time and 

 energy have been devoted to research rather than to the preservation of 

 collections, and the wisdom of this course can be estimated by examina- 

 tion of the accompanying list of publications [here omitted] ; all of which 

 are based, either in part or entirely, upon researches which we have 

 carried on at the seashore. 



The wisdom of our policy is well illustrated by the fact that the leading 

 naturalist of America, himself the head of one of the largest scientific 



