24 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



ining the microscopic features presented by living, as 

 compared with dead tissues. 



Comparative Physiology would however be nothing 

 unless it were experimental, and for this the chief require- 

 ment is living material for experiment. Hence the 

 department needs such zoological equipment as will enable 

 it to keep living animals. Since a vast number of lower 

 animals are oceanic, this second requirement is to some 

 extent fulfilled in marine biological stations and all that is 

 necessary is for such stations to awake and realise the full 

 importance of this ideal Laboratory. They would then 

 be fitted with well equipped Physiological rooms as adjuncts 

 to their own buildings. Attempts in this direction have 

 been made with more or less success at Naples, and a 

 spasmodic effort was made by Paul Bert at Arcachon in 

 France, but in this last case, though the attempt yielded 

 an initial brilliant discovery in connection with the 

 respiration of fishes, it has since languished. 



There are two difficulties — first and foremost, the most 

 important of all agencies has to appear. The new man. 

 It is not easy to find the comparative Physiologist, who 

 has been highly trained in both zoological and physiolog- 

 ical methods and knowledge. But I do not despair of his 

 advent ; in the universities to-day are some who pass from 

 advanced zoological study, through the most extensive 

 physiological course which these universities can offer, 

 and I anticipate that in the future zoologists will be more 

 and more anxious to perfect themselves in the knowledge 

 of the methods used for investigating thefunctions of living 

 things. For I am certain that an immense tract of unex- 

 plored country with all its fascinating unknown lies open 

 to him who thus armed enters upon the quest. The second 

 obstacle, and that a serious one in this commercial country, 

 is the truly British stumbling block of expense. The 



