450 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LIII. No. 1376 



the Bureau of Fisheries, Professor Spencer 

 Fullerton Baird, and the traditions that he 

 established, he continued: 



The universities are dedicated to the advance- 

 ment of learniag; the government naturally de- 

 votes itself to the promotion of the welfare of its 

 citizens, but looks far ahead with the aid of sci- 

 ence to avoid dangers and to create advantages for 

 them. The disinterested pursuit of learning has 

 so often led to great material gains that we have 

 come to feel that all learning is worth while even 

 from a material point of view. Pure and applied 

 science, when compared, must exhibit angles of 

 divergence, Taut these are not so broad as formerly, 

 and the workers are cooperating more advantage- 

 ously than ever before. There is an appreciation 

 of the fact that the great material interests of 

 mankind, the increase of health and the increase 

 of wealth, depend to an increasing extent upon 

 effective cooperation of pure and applied science. 

 Netither can advance rapidly without the other. 

 Together they will hasten the day of liberation 

 from shackles of poverty and disease. 



The Bureau of Fisheries bears the distinction of 

 practising this cardinal principle of scientific 

 progress from the day of its foundation. The 

 dedication of this building is a reaffirmation of 

 the strong belief and consistent practise of its wise 

 founder. 



Professor George Lefevre of the University 

 of Missouri speaking on the subject " The 

 Fisheries Biological Station in Eolation to 

 Universities," said in part as follows: 



The history of the station thus far furnishes, 

 among other things, a remarkable and unusual ex- 

 ample of the carrying through to realization of a 

 definite purpose, guided by a definite ideal and 

 controlled by the scientific imagination. There has 

 been no faltering on the way, no compromise of 

 the ideal of service, until to-day we witness this 

 inspiring fruition of a purpose consistently main- 

 tained and finally expressed in concrete form. 



The aims and aspirations which the bureau had 

 in mind for the Pairport Station were clearly ex- 

 pressed ... at the beginning ... in the following 

 words : ' ' This station is the first permanent fresh- 

 water biological laboratory established by the gov- 

 ernment, and it is intended to become, not only 

 the leading laboratory in America for the study 

 of fresh-water biology, but one of the most im- 

 portant biological stations in the world." 



It was a broad-minded and comprehensive pol- 

 icy of the Bureau for imiting both scientific and 

 economic interests for mutual assistance and in- 

 spiration, and one that received the strongest en- 

 dorsement and encouragement, lOu the one hand, by 

 the universities, especially those of the middle 

 west, and on the other hand by the pearl button 

 industry. 



"With singular and striking harmony, essential 

 agreement and understanding, and with unusual 

 clearness of vision into the future, a federal bu- 

 reau, an important industry, and educational in- 

 stitutions have worked together with a sdngle 

 purpose, for a definite end, and for a common 

 good. Is mot such a cooperation a heartening 

 thing, and does not the existence of this station 

 here to-day refute the contention of those apostles 

 of individualism who belittle cooperative effort 

 and maintain that all real progress in science 

 springs from the researches of the isolated, inde- 

 pendent laboratory worker? 



The station is, as has been pointed out by the 

 bureau, quite analogous to the agricultural experi- 

 ment station, and the service it can render to the 

 development of the aquatic resources of the coun- 

 try is as important and fundamental as is that of 

 the latter to the development of agricultural re- 

 sources. 



Professor C. C. Nutting brought greetings 

 of the State University of Iowa and those of 

 Leland Stanford Jr. University and its presi- 

 dent emeritus, Dr. David Starr Jordan. 

 Taking as his theme " The Biological Labora- 

 tory as an Aid to Pure Science," Professor 

 Nutting discussed briefly the history of the 

 Bureau of Fisheries, the ideals of Professor 

 Baird and the relations existing in the past 

 between the Bureau of Fisheries and the 

 workers in the field of pure science. He con- 

 cluded his address with the following ques- 

 tion and its answers: 



In answer to the question "How can the labora- 

 tory best serve as an aid to pure science?" I 

 would say: 



First. By proceeding in the future just as it 

 has in the past; by laying a foundation of pure 

 science by the work of the systematist and mor- 

 phologist and then erecting a superstructure of 

 applied science on this solid basis. 



To illustrate just whait I mean we have but to 

 refer to the work on the fresh-water mussel. The 



