102 BIOLOGY AND THE STATE II 



would help us to gain, there is actually no such 

 institution in existence. 



This is not the occasion on which to explain pre- 

 cisely how and to what extent a laboratory of marine 

 zoology might be of national importance. I hope to 

 see that matter brought before the Section during the 

 course of our meeting. But I may point out now, 

 that though it appears to me that the great need for 

 biological institutes, to which I have drawn your 

 attention, can not be met by private munificence, and 

 must in the end be arranged for by the continued 

 action of the Government in carrying out a policy to 

 which it has for many years been committed, and 

 which . has been approved by Conservatives and 

 Liberals alike yet such a special institution as a 

 laboratory of marine biology, serving as a temporary 

 workshop to any and all of our numerous students of 

 the important problems connected with the life of 

 marine plants and animals, might very well be under- 

 taken from private funds. Should it be possible, on 

 the occasion of this meeting of the British Association 

 in Southport, to obtain some promise of assistance 

 towards the realisation of this project, I think we 

 shall be able to congratulate ourselves on having done 

 something, though small perhaps in amount, towards 

 making better provision for biological research, and 

 therefore something towards the advancement of 

 science. 1 



1 The wish here expressed was subsequently realised. By public 

 subscription and Government aid, a well -equipped laboratory has 

 been erected on the shore of Plymouth Sound. For an account of 



