162 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Dakiii, M.P., Mr. Chamberlain, M.P., Mr. E. W. Duff, M.P., aud 

 Dr. Dohrn, said that the object of the proposal before the meeting 

 was not in his hands, but in those of Professor Lankester ; 

 he expressed the desire of the Royal Society to foster an under- 

 taking which promised well for the advancement of science. The 

 establishment of laboratories for the stud)^ of the fauna and 

 flora of the sea had taken place in most civilized counti'ies in the 

 last few years, and was, in fact, a necessary consequence of the 

 gi'eat change which had come about in the aims of physiological 

 science. The study of the development of animal life com- 

 menced in a serious way about half a century ago, and the rami- 

 fications of that inquiry, which had been extended to the mode 

 of becoming of all live things by Mr. Darwin, had caused a 

 complete change of the methods of biological science and of 

 the way in which investigations were carried on. In order to 

 understand the living being it was no longer considered enough, 

 as in the days of our forefathers, to observe its outside or even 

 to acquire a knowledge of its anatomy. They had now to under- 

 stand its affinities, to trace its growth from the egg, and they 

 were able to do this with a thoroughness and accuracy of which 

 in his young days no one had the slightest anticipation. This 

 was one good reason for the establishment of an institution of 

 this kind from a purely scientific point of view. There was 

 another, which was practical. We had great fisheries aud great 

 fishery interests, which were more or less regulated by legislation, 

 and which were undoubtedly of very great importance to very 

 large masses of the population. Hitherto, certainly up to 

 within the last thirty years, such regulations had been made 

 almost entirely haphazard, owing to a want of knowledge of the 

 habits, mode of life, and mode of production of animals which 

 were economically useful. At this present time it was within 

 his knowledge that a great deal of vehement oj)position to 

 particular modes of fishing arose fi'om ignorance of some of the 

 primary facts concernhig the mode of life of our food-fishes, and 

 if they were to have better legislation than at present their 

 arguments and reasonings must rest on exact and sound observa- 

 tion of the mode of life, mode of development, and metamor- 

 phoses of the inhabitants of the waters of our coasts. He 

 wished to say with particular emphasis, lest there should be any 

 misunderstanding with regard to their objects, that there was no 



