LIFE HISTORY STUDIES OF ANIMALS. 487 



more generous in acknowledging the help of their assistants. They 

 ought not to be slow to admit a real helper to such honor as there may 

 be in joint authorship. 



Among the most important helps to the student of life histories must 

 be mentioned the zoological stations now maintained by most of the 

 great nations. The parent of all these, the great zoological station at 

 Naples, celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary last April, so that the 

 whole movement belongs to our own generation. How would Spallan- 

 zani and Vaughan Thompson and Johannes Mtiller have rejoiced to 

 see such facilities for the close investigation of the animal life of the 

 sea! The English speaking nations have taken their fair share of the 

 splendid work done at Naples, and it is pleasant to remember that 

 Darwin subscribed to the first fund, while the British Association, the 

 University of Cambridge, and the Smithsonian Institution have main- 

 tained their own tables at the station.^ The material support thus 

 given is small when compared with the subsidies of the German 

 Government, and not worth mention beside the heroic sacrifices of the 

 director, Dr. Anton Dohrn, but as proofs of lively interest in a purely 

 scientific enterprise they have their value. Marine stations have now 

 multiplied to such a point that a bare enumeration of them would be 

 tedious. Fresh-water biological stations are also growing in number. 

 Forel set an excellent example by his investigation of the physical and 

 biological phenomena of the Lake of Geneva. Dr. Anton Fritsch, of 

 Prag, followed with his movable station. There is a well equipped 

 station at Plon among the lakes of Holstein, and a small one on the 

 Miiggelsee near Berlin. The active station of Illinois is known to me 

 only by the excellent publications which it has begun to issue. France, 

 Switzerland, Sweden, and Finland all have their fresh-water biological 

 stations, and I hope that England will not long remain indifierent to so 

 promising a sphere of investigation. 



Biological work may answer many useful j)urposes. It may be help- 

 ful to industry and public health. Of late years the entomologist has 

 risen into sudden importance by the vigorous steps taken to discourage 

 injurious insects. I have even known a zoological expert summoned 

 before a court of law in order to say whether or not a swordfish can 

 sink a ship. I would not on any account run down the practical appli- 

 cations of biology, but I believe that the first duty of the biologist is 

 to make science, and that science is made by putting and answering 

 questions. We are too easily drawn off from this, which is our main 

 business, by self imposed occupations, of which we can often say noth- 

 ing better than that they do no harm except to the man who undertakes 

 them. There are, for example, a good many lists of species which are 

 compiled without any ctear scientific object. We have a better pros- 

 pect of working to good purpose when we try to answer definite 

 questions. I propose to spend what time remains in putting and 



' To this list may now be added the University of Oxford. 



