LXXXVI REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 
flexible if killed in a solution of Perenyi’s fluid and glycerine of tbe 
density of sea water and afterwards transferred to a mixture of alco- 
bol and glycerine having the same density. A ps these qualities are 
exceedingly desirable in the case- of all soft objects when preserved, Dr. 
Brooks’s observations will prove of great utility. 
Summarizing the results accomplished during the season, Prof. 
Ryder affirms that at least eight important monographic reports may 
be expected as the outcome, wholly or in part, of the investigations 
carried on at the Pish Commission laboratory. 
The aquaria as a means of displaying living objects for the informa- 
tion of the public and for the study of their growth and habits, were 
made the subject of considerable experiment by the Commissioner, who 
has devised several improvements in respect to their aeration and 
illumination, and their adaptation for the drawing or photographing 
of marine specimens. As a direct result of his efforts, the aquarial 
display at Wood’s Holl has been rendered more effective and its educa- 
tional benefits have been increased. The importance of any improve- 
ments of a popular character at this place is very great, for, notwith- 
standing the comparative isolation of the village, the station is visited 
during each summer by a large number of persons, representing nearly 
every section of the country, and coming from the neighboring resorts 
or stopping over from the trains and boats .which center there. The 
Commissioner also made a thorough study of the present and future 
needs of the station with respect to the supply and methods of distribu- 
tion of both salt and fresh water, the former occasioning much trouble 
from its corrosive action on all kinds of metal piping. 
Assistance was rendered to the investigators and students connected 
with the Marine Biological Laboratory recently established in Wood’s 
Holl, by giving them the opportunity to make collections in company 
with the naturalists of the Fish Commission, on the expeditions with the 
steamer Fish Hawh and the steam launch. A similar courtesy was 
also extended to Prof. William B. Dwight and his pupils in natural his- 
tory, of the summer school at Cottage City, Martha’s Vineyard. 
Although the Wood’s Holl station has been regularly occupied for 
scientific puposes only during the summer months, or from June to 
October, there is one direction in which the work has been continued 
uninterruptedly and with great profit since the summer of 1871. In 
that year Mr. V. N. Edwards, a resident of the village and a self- trained 
collector and observer in natural history, was employed by Prof. Baird 
as a member of his party. After the close of the first season his serv- 
ices were retained for the collecting of fishes during the balance of the 
year, and his employment in that capacity has since been made perma- 
nent. Having become acquainted with the names of most species, his 
duties have been to record from day to day their presence and abun- 
dance as well as all other important facts regarding them, and to save 
and forward to Washington all the rarer forms taken and such exam- 
