692 NATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHIC PROGRAM—1965 
I Marine Biology and Biological Stations 
On the Pacific coast of North America, from Juneau to Ensenada, there are 
some fifteen establishments which in one way or another are known as marine bio- 
logical stations. Some of these operate all year, others open their doors only 
in the summer time. In the North America alone there are at least 3) marine 
laboratories associated with Universities. What goes on at these stations? Why 
are they where they are--or, why do we have these institutions? These are among 
the many questions asked by interested visitors to marine laboratories, and the 
announcements that there is to be a new marine laboratory at Bodega Head and that 
there are plans for a biggest and best one on Catalina Island have stirred up 
more public interest. Sometimes there are strange notions about the work done at 
marine laboratories--something mysterious is being done with starfish or crabs 
or something like that--or the comically serious notion that rats were being 
raised for scientific torture in the basement at Stanfords Hopkins Marine Station 
at Pacific Grove, We say this rumor was comically serious because while it did 
Suggest some misunderstanding of the activities at Pacific Grove, the most casual 
inquiry would have revealed that there is no basement at Hopkins anyhow. 
To answer such questions as what marine biology is all about and why people 
work at marine stations, it seems best to go back to the beginnings with a little 
history of marine biology and marine stations. 
Marine stations, as places--usually some building or another, of course at 
some seaside location, are not very old. The first one was started about 1859 at 
Concarneau in France, and is still going. We always say that Aristotle was the 
first marine biologist, and of course he was, and Charles Singer, the great his- 
torian of science, wrote an imaginative description of Aristotle at work: 
N_--we see Aristotle, the first and in many ways the greatest of 
all naturalists, actually watching the creatures he loves. He is 
leaning out of a boat in the great gulf that indents the Island 
of Lesbos, intent on what is going on at the bottom of the shallow 
water. In the bright sun, and in the still, clear water of the 
Mediterranean every detail, every movement, can be discerned. 
Hour after hour he lies there, motionless, watching, absorbed, 
and he has left for us his imperishable account of the things that 
he has seen with his own eyes,” 
It is to be noted that Aristotle did not use a microscope; another part of 
the description should also be noted--undoubtedly Aristotle spent a lot of time 
observing -- just looking. Too often our modern biologists don't spend enough 
time in just looking. 
Marine biology -- and many other branches of biology, did not really become 
a serious field of inquiry until the invention of the microscope -- the first 
good lens systems for microscopes were invented around 1827 and it was not until 
a few years after that that microscopes became generally available. 
One of the first people to make use of such an instrument was evidently a 
medical inspector at Cork, Ireland, J. Vaughan Thompson. We actually do not 
know much about this man, other than that he was an army surgeon for many years, 
who was obviously at heart a naturalist. Between 1823 and 1830 Vaughan Thompson 
published four papers at his own expense. He worked out the life cycles of 
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