Xvi University of California Pubications. [ ZooLocy 
When viewing this whole field of knowledge, and the means 
and methods of investigation, one must be struck by the prevail- 
ing uniformity and inadequacy of the existing marine stations 
for coping with the situation. This inadequacy is most manifest 
in two particulars; first, in the well nigh complete absence of 
endowment, which is essential for the assurance of that certainty 
and regularity of income by which alone continuous and long 
continued, definitely planned investigations can be prosecuted; 
and secondly, by the fundamental idea on which nearly all these 
institutions are based. They have been and are, with few excep- 
tions, primarily resorts for individual investigators of specific 
biological problems, and not for systematically attacking the 
problems of marine biology proper. 
I would wish to guard myself without fail against being 
understood as passing adverse criticism upon these laboratories. 
They were, most of them, brought into existence by an obvious, 
immediate, and pressing need. This they have met, and are 
meeting, magnificently. No other instrumentality has contrib- 
uted so largely to the promotion of general biology. The partic- 
ular need which gave them birth was not, however, that here 
considered. Only in the course of natural progress has this need 
come pressingly into existence. We are able now to formulate 
more definitely than has hitherto been possible, the problems in 
this field, and to see more clearly what methods and instruments 
must be used in their prosecution. 
We are in position to appreciate, for example, as never before 
the importance of knowing the complete life-histories of animals. 
We are becoming ever more impressed as knowledge advances, 
with the truth that no segment of the phenomena presented by 
an animal, morphological or physiological, is fully understood 
until it is regarded in the light of the entire life career of that 
animal. We are likewise in position to see as never before what 
must be done to attain to this fullness of knowledge. We must, in 
the first place, learn by observation all the facts of the life- 
history of the animal. In the second place, we must make use 
at every point possible of a combination of observation and 
experimentation for the interpretation of these facts. 
