446 OCEANOGRAPHY, BIONOMICS, AND AQUICULTURE. 



and has drawn from some of these cases a conclusion in regard to the 

 discontinuity of variation which many field zoologists find it hard to 

 accept. 



Weldon and Karl Pearson have recently applied the methods of 

 statistics and mathematics to the. study of individual variation. This 

 method of investigation, in Professor Weldon's hands, may be expected 

 to yield results of great interest in regard to the influence of variations 

 in the young animal upon the chance of survival, and so upon the 

 adult characteristics of the species. But Avhile acknowledging the 

 value of these methods, and admiring the skill and care with which 

 they have been devised and applied, I must emphatically protest 

 against the idea which has been suggested, that only by such mathe- 

 matical and statistical methods of study can we successfully determine 

 the influence of the environment on species, gauge the utility of specific 

 characters, and throw further light upon the origin of species. For my 

 part, I believe we shall gain a truer insight into those mysteries which 

 still involve variations and species by a study of the characteristic 

 features of individuals, varieties, and species in a living state in rela- 

 tion to their environment and habits. The mode of work of the old 

 field naturalists, supplemented by the ajiparatus and methods of the 

 modern laboratory, is, I believe, not only one of the most fascinating, 

 but also one of the most profitable fields of investigation for the philo- 

 sophical zoologist. Such studies must be made in that modern out- 

 come of the growing needs of our science, the Zoological Station, 

 where marine animals can be kept in captivity under natural condi- 

 tions, so that their habits may be closely observed, and where we can 

 follow out the old precept — first, observation and reflection; then 

 experiment. 



The biological stations of the present day represent, then, a happy 

 union of the field work of the older naturalists with the laboratory 

 work of the comparative anatomist, histologist, and embryologist. 

 They are the culmination of the "Aquarium" studies of Kiugsley aud 

 Gosse, and of the feeling in both scientific men and amateurs, which 

 was expressed by Herbert Spencer when he said: "Whoever at the 

 seaside has not had a microscope and an aquarium has yet to learn 

 what the highest pleasures of the seaside are." Moreover, I feel that 

 the biological station has come to the rescue, at a critical moment, of 

 our laboratory worker who, without its healthy, refreshing influence, is 

 often in these latter days in peril of losing his intellectual life in the 

 weary maze of microtome methods and transcendental cytology. The 

 old Greek myth of the Libyan giant, Antaeus, who wrestled with Her- 

 cules and regained his strength each time he touched his mother earth, 

 is true at least of the zoologist. I am sure he derives fresh vigor from 

 every direct contact with living nature. 



In our tanks and artificial pools we can reproduce the Littoral and the 

 Laminarian zones; we can see the methods of feeding and breeding — 



