TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION D. 707 



land, and air, where there is a profusion of food, where the materials brought down 

 by streams or worn away from the land are first deposited, where the animals are 

 able to receive the greatest amount of light and heat, oxygen and food, without 

 being exposed periodically to the air, rain, frost, sun, and other adverse conditions 

 of the littoral zone, it is there that life — -it seems to me — ismost abundant, growth 

 most active, competition most severe. It is there, probably, that the surrounding 

 conditions are most favourable to animal life ; and, therefore, it seems likely that 

 it is from this region that, as the result of overcrowding, migrations have taken 

 place downwards to the abysses, outwards on the surface, and upwards on to the 

 shore. Finally, it is in this Laminarian zone, probably, that under the stress of 

 competition between individuals and between allied species evolution of new forms 

 by means of natural selection has been most active. Here, at any rate, we find, 

 along with some of the most primitive of animals, some of the most remarkably 

 modified forms, and some of the most curious cases of minute adaptation to 

 environment. This brings us to the subject of 



BioNoinos, 



which deals with the habits and variations of animals, their modifications, and the 

 relations of these modifications to the surrounding conditions of existence. 



It is remarkable that the great impetus given by Darwin's work to biological 

 investigation has been chiefly directed to problems of structure and development, 

 and not so much to bionomics until lately. "Variation amongst animals in a state 

 of nature is, however, at last beginning to receive the attention it deserves. Bateson 

 has collected together, and classified in a most useful book of reference, the 

 numerous scattered observations on variation made by many investigators, and has 

 drawn from some of these cases a conclusion in regard to the discontinuity of 

 variation whicli many field zoologists find it hard to accept. 



Weldon and Karl Pearson have recently applied the methods of statistics and 

 mathematics to the study of individual variation. This method of investigation, 

 in Professor Weldon's hands, may be expected to yield results of great interest in 

 regard to the influence of variations in the young animal upon the chance of sur- 

 vival, and so upon the adult characteristics of the species. But while acknow- 

 ledging the value of these methods, and admiring the skill and care with which 

 they have been devised and applied, I must emphatically protest against the idea 

 which has been suggested, that only by such mathematical and statistical methods 

 of study can we successfully determine the influence of the environment on species, 

 gauge the utility of specific characters, and throw further light upon the origin of 

 species. For my part, I believe we shall gain a truer insight into those mysteries 

 which still involve variations and species by a study of the characteristic features 

 of individuals, varieties, and species in a living state in relation to their environ- 

 ment and habits. The mode of work of the old field naturalists, supplemented by 

 the apparatus and methods of the modern laboratory, is, I believe, not only one of 

 the most fascinating, hut also one of the most profitable, fields of investigation for 

 the philosophical zoologist. Such studies must be made in that modern outcome 

 of the growing needs of our science, the Zoological Station, where marine animals 

 can be kept in captivity under natural conditions, so that their habits may be 

 closely observed, and where we can follow out the old precept — first, Observation 

 and Reflection ; then E.xperiment. 



The biological stations of the present day represent, then, a happy union of 

 the field work of the older naturalists with the laboratory work of the comparative 

 anatomist, histologist, and embryologist. They are the culmination of the 

 * Aquarium ' studies of Kingsley and Gosse, and of the feeling in both scientific 

 men and amateurs, which was expressed by Herbert Spencer when he said : ' Who- 

 ever at the seaside has not had a microscope and an aquarium has yet to learn what 

 the highest pleasures of the seaside are.' Moreover, I feel that the biological 

 station has come to the rescue, at a critical moment, of our laboratory worker 

 who, without its healthy, refreshing influence, is often in these latter days in peril 



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