506 



■GIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. IX. No. 223. 



results of the summer's work were published 

 in a bulletin of the Commission. Unfavor- 

 able financial conditions compelled the sus- 

 pension of the work on the part of the 

 Michigan Fish Commission, but American 

 investigators owe much to the impetus 

 which has been given to such work through 

 their agency. 



For many years the U. S. Fish Commis- 

 sion has been urged to establish on the 

 Great Lakes a biological station similar to 

 that which has long been maintained on 

 the ocean, at Woods Hole, Mass. Finally, 

 a year ago, a prelininary survey was under- 

 taken with a view to deciding the advisa- 

 bility of such a movement and Professor 

 Eeighard was requested to assume the 

 leadership of the enterprise. The U. S. 

 Fish Hatchery at Put-in-Bay, a small island 

 in the center of the west end of Lake Erie, 

 was selected as the seat of operations and 

 a party of scientific workers spent two 

 months in studying the fauna and flora of 

 the adjacent waters. It is to be hoped that 

 this work may develop into a permanent 

 experiment station on the Great Lakes. 



Among permanent American stations of a 

 technical character, the Experimental Filter 

 Station of the Massachusetts Board of 

 Health, located at Lawrence, is the best 

 known as it is also, perhaps, the most 

 famous of its kind in the world. It has 

 been in continuous operation since 1887 

 and has conducted extended experiments 

 on the biological examination of drinking 

 waters ; the methods worked out in con- 

 nection with them are now standard for 

 such purposes. Similar technical labora- 

 toi'ies are in operation in Boston, Lynn, 

 Worcester and other cities ; but in most of 

 them the biological examination of waters 

 is only a secondary function. The Mount 

 Prospect Laboratory, organized recently in 

 connection with the Brooklyn Waterworks, 

 and placed under the direction of Mr. G. 

 C. Whipple, whose contributions to limno- 



biologic questions are well known, is more 

 particularly devoted to the investigation of 

 questions connected with the chai-acter of 

 the water supply. Numerous samples 

 taken from all the sources of the city's sup- 

 ply are subjected each week to physical, 

 chemical, microscopical, and bacteriological 

 examinations, and the quality of the water 

 controlled thereby, since the reports made 

 to the chief engineer serve to guide him in 

 the choice of the sources from which the 

 water is drawn. The results of such studies 

 are also of great importance in general lim- 

 nologic questions. 



The University of Illinois was extremely 

 fortunate in having associated with it, by 

 statute, a state laboratory of natural his- 

 tory which has been engaged for many years 

 in a natural history survey of the State. 

 Under the direction of Professor Forbes, 

 whose pioneer work on the lake fauna has 

 already been noted, particular attention was 

 paid to such questions as the food of fresh 

 water fishes, and the distribution of various 

 groups of fresh water organisms, so that both 

 by preliminary work, and in the person of 

 its director, the state laboratory was pecu- 

 liarly fitted for the successful inauguration 

 of an Illinois Biological Station which be- 

 came possible under state grant in 1894. 

 The laboratory secured a permanent super- 

 intendent in the person of Dr. Kofoid a year 

 later, and work has been carried on continu- 

 ously by a permanent force since that date. 

 The laboratory was unique in its inception 

 since the director. Dr. Forbes, conceived the 

 idea of locating it on a river system rather 

 than as all previous stations on a lake, and 

 it was not only the first in the world, but 

 is yet the only station which has peculiarly 

 attacked the problems of such a system. 



The Illinois river and its dependent 

 waters were selected as the field of opera- 

 tions and Havanna, 111., as the center of 

 work. The river here presents in its cut- 

 offs, bayous, shallow, marshy tracts, sandy 



