ST ANDREWS AND SCIENTIFIC FISHERY 

 INVESTIGATIONS 



INTRODUCTION 



THE investigation of fish life in the sea is among the most 

 recent developments of modern Biological Science. The 

 University of St Andrews led the way in this work as in so 

 many fields of intellectual activity and research. 



It was appropriate that in Scotland, where sea-fishing 

 industries rank among the first and most important in the 

 world, her most ancient seat of learning should give the 

 impulse to exact fisheries' research in the waters of the sea. 



A lamentable lack of scientific information on fishery 

 matters prevailed until a comparatively late date, and, as 

 the Professor of Zoology at Cambridge (the late Professor 

 Alfred Newton) said in closing his Michaelmas Term Lectures 

 in 1885, ' no attempt save that of Professor M'Intosh at 

 St Andrews has been made in this country to remove this 

 want of knowledge.' These pioneer efforts have had fruitful 

 and widespread results, and have greatly influenced marine 

 investigation everywhere. 



Science at St Andrews has always had a peculiar pro- 

 minence. James Gregory, who invented the reflecting tele- 

 scope ; Napier, who gave logarithms to the world ; John 

 Goodsir, the early master of modern comparative anatomy ; 

 John Reid, the first of great Scottish physiologists ; Brewster, 

 the immortal physicist ; and Lyon Playfair, the distinguished 

 chemist, are amongst those of eminence who studied or taught 

 at St Andrews. As was said some years ago in a leading 



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