Apkil 7, 1899.] 



SCIENCE. 



507 



areas with wooded margins and regions of 

 spring fed waters, and witli the enoi-mous 

 extent of land covered at high water, a va- 

 riety of conditions which it must be con- 

 fessed could not be surpassed, and hardly 

 equalled elsewhere. The abundance and 

 variety of the flora and fauna, both in the 

 higher and lower forms of life, demonstrate 

 the good judgment exercised in the choice 

 of locality. A noteworthy feature in the 

 equipment of this station, and so far as I 

 know, one that is unique, is the floating 

 laboratory which enables an easj^ transfer 

 of operations to other points, where work 

 can be carried on for comparison or contrast, 

 with equipment and environment as satis- 

 factory as that which exists in a permanent 

 building, but with the flexibility and facility 

 of movement which characterizes field 

 studies. The work has been conducted un- 

 interruptedly for more than three years, 

 and the results include studies on the in- 

 sects and their development, on the earth- 

 worms, on the Protozoa and rotifers, on 

 various groups of crustaceans and general 

 investigations on plankton methods and on 

 the distribution of the plankton, while some 

 work has also been done on the plant life 

 of water. These studies have been pub- 

 lished in the Bulletin of the Illinois State 

 Laboratory of Natural History. 



Let us consider, in conclusion, the func- 

 tion and future development of these insti- 

 tutions. It is perfectly clear that the work 

 of the different types of fresh-water sta- 

 tions will vary somewhat with the class, 

 and Zacharias has outlined carefully the 

 differences in the work of the fixed and of 

 the movable stations. But these are, after 

 all, minor differences. All stations, whether 

 fixed or movable, have really three objects : 

 teaching, investigating, experimenting, ob- 

 jects which may be subserved directly or 

 indirectly, or in both ways, by each one of 

 them. It is unquestionably true that the 

 tendency within recent years has been to 



make the university trained scientist a lab- 

 oratory man, unacquainted with work out 

 of doors and among living things. This 

 has reacted unfavorably upon his teaching 

 powers, and thus indirectly upon the entire 

 school system. Not that subjects in natural 

 history are not better taught in our second- 

 ary schools than they were twenty years 

 ago, when, in truth, they were hardly taught 

 at all, but that the naturalist to-day is not 

 trained as an outdoor observer and is little 

 capable of handling himself and his work 

 in a new environment. As Forbes says : 

 " It is, in fact, the biological station, wisely 

 and liberally managed, which is to restore 

 to us what is best in the naturalist of the 

 old school united to what is best in the lab- 

 oratory student of the new." Thus, both 

 through the influence of the investigators 

 in the case of those stations which do not 

 carry on directly any educational work, and 

 through the teaching of those which do 

 conduct summer instructional courses, new 

 life will be instilled into the teaching of 

 natural history throughout our country. 



In the second place, the fresh-water sta- 

 tion is a center for investigation with all its 

 stimulating eflects on the individual thus 

 brought in contact with problems of Nature 

 and efforts for their solution, and in the 

 contributions to the advancement of knowl- 

 edge which are the fruits of a careful work 

 on the part of its attaches. All that has 

 been said of the advantages of marine sta- 

 tions applies equally well to fresh-water 

 laboratories, together with the added ad- 

 vantages that their accessibility brings these 

 advantages to considerable regions which 

 would otherwise be entirely without them 

 by virtue of their distance from the sea. It 

 is unnecessary that I should emphasize 

 further this phase of the question, or dwell 

 upon the greater simplicity of biological 

 conditions in fresh- water over those which 

 exist in the ocean. These factors have been 

 forcibly presented by many writers. 



