March 15, 1883 | 
NATURE 
455 
vidual for a whole year, have applied for permission to 
work there. Last year Mr. Whitman, whose observations 
on the development of Clepsine are well known, received 
this permission under special cireumstances by the 
courtesy of the staff, and carried out some excellent re- 
searches on Diczemidz, which are published in the last 
number of the A7t¢thetlungen. Recently an increased 
number of similar applications have been received from 
American zoologists. 
In speaking of the arrangements of the station, the 
perfection of the organisation for the supply of material, 
by means of the dredging and fishing of the gulf, cannot 
be too warmly praised or admired. Except in continuously 
bad weather, the beautiful and wonderful creatures com- 
prising the rich Mediterranean fauna are brought in to 
the station in an abundance that is perfectly bewildering 
to a zoologist on his first visit. 
steam launches, the larger of which, the Johannes Miiller, 
was given by the Berlin Academy in 1877, while the 
smaller was purchased subsequently, gives to the fishing 
department the facilities for rapid locomotion and trans- 
port, without which such abundance and perfect condition 
of the living material could not be obtained ; especially 
as some of the most fruitful localities are widely sepa- 
rated, and a great many of the creatures, including all 
pelagic forms, are of extreme sensitiveness and delicacy. 
The zoological station, although only nine years have 
passed since its first opening, has become a necessity for 
the progress of zoology; its international character 
enables every country to contribute to its support and 
share in the benefits derived from it; it is a great organi- 
sation by which forces of various kinds are brought 
together to aid in the attainment of one great object, the 
investigation of the facts and phenomena of marine life 
in all its diversities, and their explanation in accordance 
with the principles of evolution. The progress which is 
brought about by the work actually done in the station is not 
more important than the indirect influence it exerts in 
various ways ; its example has produced similar enterprises 
in various parts of the world; the benefit of the experience 
it gains extends to other centres of scientific research, 
and other branches of biology than marine zoology, and 
by its own vitality and its influence on the zoologists who 
study at its tables it has done much to sustain and develop 
the great impulse which the genius of Darwin gave to zoo- 
- logy twenty-three years ago. J. T. CUNNINGHAM 
EPPING FOREST 
HE House of Commons divided last Monday after- 
noon upon the Chingford and High Beech 
Railway Bill. An amendment was proposed by Mr. 
Bryce, Chairman of the Commons Preservation So- 
ciety, and was supported by Mr. Thorold Rogers, Sir 
H. J. Selwin-Ibbetson, who framed the Epping Forest 
Act of 1878, Mr. Fowler, Mr. Firth, Mr. T. C. Baring, 
Lord Eustace Cecil, Mr. Ritchie, Mr. James, Mr. Caine, 
and Mr. Waddy. As a fitting sequel to Mr. Meldola’s 
paper, which we published last week, the result of the 
division, which was announced amidst cheers, was : For 
the second reading, 82; against it, 230 ; majority against 
the Bill, 148. It is to be hoped that this will be the last 
attempt to tamper with what Mr. Bryce justly described 
as “a priceless heritage of the people of London.’’ 
The possession of two 
It is inevitable from the growth of our great towns that 
the student of Nature dwelling in their midst must go 
farther and farther afield for the objects of his study. It 
seems, moreover, that our science is at present inadequate 
to prevent the lethal influence of smoke and acrid fumes 
from dealing destruction to vegetation over a wide region 
outside the actual boundaries of these towns. The sani- 
tary necessity of open spaces has been amply demon- 
strated ; but it was not as a mere open space or people’s 
park that Parliament allowed the Corporation of London 
to acquire Epping Forest in 1878. 
The so-called rights of those who had inclosed the 
Forest, were overridden in order that an expanse of 
natural and, in some senses, primeval forest might be 
secured for the benefit of all classes of the public free 
from encroachment for ever. Parliament directed that it 
was to be preserved “in its natural condition as a forest,” 
and conferred upon a Committee—composed of some 
members of that Corporation which holds the manorial 
rights, together with four resident gentlemen as Verderers, 
elected nominally by the commoners—the position of 
Conservators. 
Unfortunately Common Councilmen seem to share the 
popular ignorance as to what constitutes the natural 
aspect of a forest. Many people believe a forest to be a 
large wood or plantation, and the Conservators seem to 
have been mainly actuated by fears lest visitors should 
get their feet wet or find the Forest less amusing than 
other suburban resorts. Draining and roadmaking have 
been their main tasks with a view to maintain the natural 
aspect the Forest wore for centuries, while during the five 
years they have been in office no attempt has been made 
at reafforesting the now unsightly fallows that the in- 
truders had reduced into an arable condition. Pieces of 
artificial water have been constructed, mostly with out- 
lines reminding one of the so-called Round Pond in 
Kensington Gardens ; pleasure-boats have been licensed 
upon them at a rental estimated at over 200/. per annum ; 
free displays of fireworks in connection with a huge 
tavern, shooting-galleries, and steam-roundabouts have 
been authorised as contributing to a truly ideal forest. 
These steps have of course been taken with the idea 
that the Conservators had the power to act in the way 
they think best calculated to elevate and refine the work- 
ing-classes; but they are diametrically opposed to the 
spirit of the Act of 1878, which did not aim at establish- 
ing a tea-garden or at pandering to the lowest tastes of 
any class of the community. 
As is seen from Mr. Meldola’s article, the Essex Field 
Club and other scientific societies have more than once 
protested against such mismanagement; but the Con- 
servators had not yet filled up the full measure of their 
iniquities. They must promote a railway, if not a tram- 
way as well. 
English public opinion is beginning to awaken to the 
idea that we have now almost as many railways as are 
required for any purposes but providing fees for directors 
and engineers and feeding the jealousies of rival com- 
panies. In the present session of Parliament the railway 
companies have evinced in the Bills they are promoting a 
partiality for common land that would be remarkable 
were not the reason for it sufficiently obvious. Common 
land can be had cheap; for it is everybody’s business to 
