8 FIRST REPORT 
of the state, where, during the summer vacations, they could 
gain that knowledge of facts and methods at first hand so 
much needed by many of them to enable them to properly 
teach botany, physiology and zoédlogy. The mere associa- 
tion of such teachers with the students carrying on original 
investigations would be of incalculable value. 
For a number of years marine biological stations, usually 
called zodlogical stations, have offered opportunities for the 
study of marine life in various parts of the world and have 
annually attracted great scientists from all civilized countries. 
The enthusiasm and satisfaction with which their work has 
been received in every civilized community, and the practical re- 
sults traceable to their influence are a sufficient justification for 
their existence. Indeed to-day they are just as much a nec- 
essity as the university laboratories. While the number of 
marine biological stations has increased to ten or more, the 
establishment of fresh-water biological stations has been 
attempted in but few places, so that to-day only one or two 
properly equipped are in existence in Europe, and none in 
this country. The reasons for the preferences thus indicated 
may briefly be stated to be:—(1) Man’s desire to discover, and 
to see that about which he knows nothing from direct observa- 
tion. (2) Thefact that hitherto the problems in zodlogy have 
been largely morphological problems, and these point to the 
seas for solutions. For inthe oceans we see the vast original 
home with a uniformity and constancy of environment and 
gradual transitions not met with elsewhere. Moreover the 
oceans are so densely populated that t.e patient and thought- 
ful investigator has never been disappointed. 
There is, however, abundant evidence on hand in the works 
of great men showing that not even all the morphological 
problems are to find their solutions in the study of only marine 
forms, and that what we would expect on a priori grounds 
actual observation and investigation demonstrate. And while 
the conditions of life in the ocean may be characterized as 
quite uniform, those on land and in fresh-water must be char- 
acterized as very variable, and consequently demanding more 
varied adaptations and thus naturally leading to a higher 
development. In view of this it becomes evident that the 
problems relating more particularly to the physiological side 
of living things are to be solved principally at fresh-water 
stations and not at marine stations. The fresh-water biologi- 
cal laboratory therefore has a special field of work in phys- 
