No. 378.] BIOLOGICAL STATIONS OF AMERICA. 397 
as well as higher schools have come from their inability to 
work with the means found at hand, and their inability to adapt 
themselves to a new environment. 
The object of the station can best be expressed in the words 
of the first announcement. 
RESEARCH. — The main object of the station will be the study of varia- 
tion. For this purpose a small lake will present a limited, well-circumscribed 
locality, within which the differences of environmental influences will be 
reduced toa minimum. The study will consist in the determination of the 
extent of variation in the non-migratory vertebrates, the kind of variation, 
whether continuous or discontinuous, the quantitative variation, and the 
direction of variation. In this way it is hoped to survey a base line which 
can be utilized in studying the variation of the same species throughout their 
distribution. This study should be carried on for a series of years, or at 
least be repeated at definite intervals to determine the annual or periodic 
variation from the mean. A comparison of this variation in the same 
animals in other similarly limited and well-circumscribed areas, and the 
correlation of the variation of a number of species in these areas will 
demonstrate the influence of the changed environment, and will be a simple, 
inexpensive substitute for much expensive experimental work. 
For this work the situation of Lake Wawasee, surrounded as it is by other 
lakes, some of them belonging to — river basins, will be admirably 
adapte 
In condiection with this study of the developed forms the variation in the 
development itself will receive attention ; for instance, the variation in 
segmentation, the frequency of such variation, and the relation of such 
variation in the development to the variation in the adult, and the mechani- 
cal causes affecting variation. 
INSTRUCTION. — Courses of instruction which ordinarjly cannot be given 
in the university’ s laboratories during the college year will be offered, and 
credit given on the university’s records. The courses are as follows : 
1. Elementary work. The class will collect, preserve, and study a series 
of animals occurring in the neighborhood of the station. Emphasis will be 
laid on the nature of the fresh-water fauna, and the correlation and adaptation 
of organisms. The entire day will be given to collecting excursions, labo- 
ratory work, and lectures, with individual work on Saturdays. No special 
preparation is needed. (Teachers may collect material for their classes, but 
alcohol for this purpose will not be furnished.) 2. Eméryology and life 
history of fishes and other local forms. 3. Special investigations in the 
variation of non-migratory vertebrates and survey of the physical and bio- 
logical conditions of Lake Wawasee. 
