FRESH- WATER BIOLOGICAL STATIONS OP THE WORLD. 511 



to guide him in the choice of the sources from which the water is 

 drawn. The results of such studies are also of great importance in 

 general limnologic questions. 



The University of Illinois was extremely fortunate in having asso- 

 ciated with it, by statute, a State laboratory of natural history, which 

 has been engaged for many years in a natural-history survey of the 

 State. Under the direction of Professor Forbes, whose pioneer work 

 on the lake fauna has already been noted, particular attention was 

 paid to such questions as the food of fresh-water fishes and the dis- 

 tribution of various groups of fresh-water organisms, so that both by 

 preliminary work and in the person of its director the State labora- 

 tory was peculiarly fitted for the successful inauguration of an Illinois 

 biological station, which became possible under State grant in 1894. 

 The laboratory secured a permanent superintendent in the person of 

 Dr. Kofoid a year later, and work has been carried on continuously by 

 a permanent force since that date. The laboratory was unique in its 

 inception, since the director, Dr. Forbes, conceived the idea of locating 

 it on a river system rather than, as all previous stations, on a lake, and 

 it was not only the first in the world, but is yet the only station which 

 has peculiarly attacked the problems of such a system. 



The Illinois River and its dependent waters were selected as the 

 field of operations and Havana, 111., as the center of work. The 

 river here presents in its cut-offs, bayous, shallow, marshy tracts, sandy 

 areas with wooded margins and regions cf spring-fed waters, and with 

 the enormous extent of land covered at high water, a variety of condi- 

 tions which it must be confessed could not be surpassed and hardly 

 equaled elsewhere. The abundance and variety of the flora and fauna, 

 both in the higher and lower forms of life, demonstrate the good judgment 

 exercised in the choice of locality. A noteworthy feature in the equip- 

 ment of this station, and, so far as I know, one that is unique, is the floating 

 laboratory, which enables an easy transfer of operations to other points, 

 where work can be carried on for comparison or contrast, with equip- 

 ment and environment as satisfactory as that which exists in a perma- 

 nent building, but with the flexibility and facility of movement which 

 characterizes field studies. The work has been conducted uninterrupt- 

 edly for more than three years, and the results include studies on the 

 insects and their development, on the earthworms, on the Protozoa 

 and rotifers, on various groups of crustaceans and general investiga- 

 tions on plankton methods, and on the distribution of the plankton, 

 while some work has also been done on the plant life of water. These 

 studies have been published in the Bulletin of the Illinois State Lab- 

 oratory of Natural History. 



Let us consider, in conclusion, the function and future development 

 of these institutions. It is perfectly clear that the work of the differ- 

 ent types of fresh- water stations will vary somewhat with the class, 

 and Zacharias has outlined carefully the differences in the work of the 



