334 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XL No. 270. 



tioned at Woods Holl and thoy, with the 

 smaller vessels of the Commission and of 

 the Marine Biological Laborator}', formed a 

 fleet of vessels equipped for scientific work 

 such as has rarely assembled in one place 

 before. 



The attendance at the Laboratorj' was 

 gratif^'ingly large ; there were seventy-one 

 investigators and seventy-eight students, 

 representing sixty-nine different schools, 

 colleges and universities. When it is re- 

 membered that there were last year three 

 other marine laboratories on our Atlantic 

 coast, offering their facilities freely, or for 

 much less than the fee at the Marine Bio- 

 logical Laboratorj^ there is all the more 

 reason for satisfaction at the large number 

 in attendance. In the character and variety 

 of the research work done the past season 

 was not excelled by any preceding one, and 

 in some respects it surpassed them all. 



All these features show that the Marine 

 Biological Laboratory is to-day, as much as 

 at anjr time in its past historj', the center of 

 biological instruction and investigation in 

 this country. This can still be said in spite 

 of the fact that there are numerous other 

 marine and fresh water stations in this 

 country, which are doing excellent work 

 and are worthy of generous praise and sup- 

 port. However, no other American station 

 has the national and even cosmopolitan 

 character of the Woods Holl Laboratory ; 

 no other enjoys the cooperation of so large 

 a number of educational and scientific in- 

 stitutions, no where else is the whole field 

 of biology so fully represented and no other 

 American laboratory is so productive in 

 original work, nor has so large a number of 

 investigators and students. 



The Marine Biological Laboratory is a 

 shining illustration of the fact that men and 

 not buildings nor material equipment make 

 an institution great. There is probably no 

 other educational or scientific institution 

 in the world which on so small a financial 



basis has accomplished so great a work. 

 This work is of such scientific and educa- 

 tional value and the Laboratory stands for 

 so fine an ideal of scientific cooperation that 

 a brief account of its history and work 

 should not be wholly lacking in interest or 

 suggestiveness. 



The Laboratory can claim to be a lineal 

 descendant of the first marine laboratory 

 in America, the school established by 

 Louis Agassiz in 1873, on the island of 

 Penikese, in Buzzards Bay. The Penikese 

 Laboratory was abandoned in 1874 at the 

 close of its second session, after having re- 

 ceived in buildings, equipment and endow- 

 ment, more money than has been given to 

 the Marine Biological Laboratory during 

 the twelve years of its history. This step 

 was made necessary on account of the un- 

 fortunate location of the laboratory on an 

 isolated island, and above all by the death 

 of the man whose genius had created it and 

 who alone was able to secure the scientific- 

 cooperation necessary to its maintenance. 

 After the closure of the Penikese Labora- 

 tory an attempt was made to secure the 

 coopei'ation of educational and scientific in- 

 stitutions in establishing a marine labora- 

 tory at Woods Holl, but the support was- 

 not forthcoming at that time and the proj- 

 ect was abandoned. 



In 1880 the Woman's Educational As- 

 sociation of Boston, acting in cooperation 

 with the Boston Society of Natural History, 

 opened a seaside laboratory at Annisquam, 

 Mass., and this continued in operation for 

 six years. In 1886 the supporters of that 

 laboratory addressed a circular letter to- 

 many leading biologists in this country ask- 

 ing their cooperation in the work of estab- 

 lishing the laboratory on a broader basis. 

 In March, 1887, a meeting of persons inter- 

 ested in the enterprise was held in Boston, 

 and a committee was appointed " to perfect 

 plans for the organization of a permanent 

 seaside laboratory, to elect trustees and to- 



