898 
Professor Forel, of Geneva, was the pioneer 
in the study of fresh-water lakes, and, as 
the investigators of this beautiful mountain 
republic have retained their supremacy in 
this field of research through more than 
thirty years, so also Switzerland was the 
leader in organized effort towards the de- 
velopment of limnological investigation. 
The plan of the Swiss Limnological Com- 
mission in assigning work in various regions 
to different students has met with such suc- 
cess as to inspire those who follow in its 
footsteps with hope for the outcome of their 
efforts, and as to hold up a high standard 
for their attainment, Similar results can- 
not be expected ina brief period of time, 
but we hope that they may be reached here 
eventually. 
The study of limnologic questions affords 
abundant opportunities for workers of every 
type and of every grade; but if the results 
of such varied activity are to be of per- 
manent value or of general import they 
must be correlated and unified. There- 
with gaps in the records will become ap- 
parent and new problems will be suggested, 
so that the lines of work will be extended 
and at the same time joined together into a 
symmetrical system. The fundamental ob- 
jects then of this Limnological Commission 
we believe to be: 
To coordinate the results obtained by dif- 
ferent investigators into a united whole, to 
enlist new workers and to encourage new 
work .along lines already marked out, to 
suggest new lines of work and methods of 
research, and to aim at uniformity of pro- 
cedure, so that the results may be compared 
and correlated. 
For convenience in discussion and in the 
organization of the work, the field of limno- 
logic study has been cut up into a number 
of main divisions and some of the chief 
subdivisions under each indicated. These 
are as follows: 
1. Bibliography : A general historical re- 
SCIENCE. 
[N. S. Vou. XIII. No. 336. 
view of limnological studies to date’; peri- 
odie summaries of work done in the world 
at intervals thereafter. 
2. Physiography: The inanimate environ- 
ment, including the physical and chemical 
study of water bodies ; types of such bodies, 
distribution ; temperature, color, circula- 
tion ; lake areas ; composition of water, etc. 
3. Biology, (a) Taxonomy of water organ- 
isms: Systematic tables, description and 
sketch of each on cards to form eventually 
a faunal catalog for the United States. (0) 
Morphology of organisms: Anatomy, his- 
tology, embryology of individual forms. 
(¢) Distribution of organisms: Geographic; 
regional ; littoral, limnetic, bathybic species ; 
quantitative: General, numerical, propor- 
tional. (d) Physiology, experimental stud- 
ies. (e) Ecology. 
4, Applied limnology: Water supply, 
sewage, fish culture. 
After this preliminary statement, the 
Limnological Commission has the following 
recommendations to make for the purpose 
of advancing this work : 
First, it is expedient that as soon as suit- 
able persons can be found who are willing 
to undertake the work, there should be 
added to the Commission a physicist, a 
chemist and a bacteriologist, in order that 
these phases of the environment may be 
adequately studied. 
Second, the influence of the Society should 
be directed towards the production and pub- 
lication of accurate systematic accounts of 
the fresh-water organisms to the end that 
the various workers on limnologic questions 
may have at hand taxonomic summaries of 
the organisms with which they come in 
contact. It is not too much to say that 
such treatises are non-existent for American 
forms and inaccessible to the majority, even 
for the few groups which have been par- 
tially worked out. This must be the first 
step in the inauguration of the proposed 
movement. The publication of a series of 
