NATURAL HISTORY AT ST ANDREWS 281 



station at St Andrews had been kept in view for many years. 

 Accordingly, when it was found in 1882 and 1883 that the 

 surplus funds of the Edinburgh Fisheries' Exhibition were 

 to be devoted to such purposes, special efforts were made to 

 obtain a moderate sum (300) for this purpose. By the 

 support of various societies in Edinburgh, however, the 

 whole funds were placed at the disposal of Dr (now Sir) 

 John Murray for the foundation of the Granton Laboratory, 

 on which from first to last probably 7000 or 8000 have been 

 spent. It is long since it was used for original research. 



Efforts, nevertheless, were continued, and no opportunity 

 was lost in pointing out the rare combination of circumstances 

 which rendered St Andrews so peculiarly fitted for such a 

 laboratory. This long-projected scheme was at last made 

 practicable by a request that the Professor of Natural History 

 should undertake the scientific work of the Trawling Com- 

 mission in 1883. As the work was in progress in St Andrews 

 Bay and elsewhere, it was clear that some kind of station 

 was indispensable. The Chairman of the Commission (Lord 

 Dalhousie) gave all the aid and encouragement in his power 

 to meet this emergency. A grant from Parliament for 

 the laboratory was obtained early in the year 1884, and 

 administered through the Fishery Board for Scotland. Mean- 

 while the wooden hospital on the beach had been rented and 

 occupied, so that many of the investigations for the Trawling 

 Commission were at once carried out in it, with the aid of 

 temporary apparatus formerly used for hatching salmon in 

 Perthshire, as the laboratory was not fitted with pipes and 

 tanks till the close of the year. This laboratory, independently 

 of its special researches, greatly increased the facilities for 

 study in connection with the class of natural history, and 

 proved invaluable for enriching the museum. 



The same year (1884) special exertions were made by the 

 University to include a permanent biological laboratory, 

 with its tanks and apparatus, within the grounds of the 



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