4 , TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



the amateur is that you cau sub-divide it as 

 much as you like, aud still study your fraction 

 in an intelligent manner. Years ago one of the 

 amateur naturalists of Liverpool devoted his leisure 

 to the special study of the common cockroach, but after 

 some time he found his subject too large and had to 

 restrict his attention with increased interest to one of the 

 markings upon the head of that complex animal. That 

 may be regarded as an extreme case, but, to take other 

 examples, the study of Foraminifera, of Molluscan Shells, 

 of Zoophytes and of Polyzoa, of Copepoda or of some 

 group of Insects, is a subject large enough as a serious 

 " hobby " for any man or woman. I need hardly say that 

 such an amateur naturalist may do very good work and 

 make valued additions to science. It is one of the glories 

 of British Marine Biology that so much has been 

 discovered and so many of our best monographs written, 

 not by professional men, but by serious amateurs — men 

 who have devoted the leisure of busy lives to the study of 

 some branch of the subject as a hobby. I should like 

 to see more young men and women come forward as 

 members of this Society and become practical Naturalists. 

 Those of us who are older and have had, so far, more 

 experience of nature and methods will be only too 

 thankful to help them at the beginning, then to work with 

 them, and finally to learn from them. 



I have just mentioned " methods," and one of the 

 first methods to learn is the method of collecting the 

 organisms you wish to study; and that brings me to the 

 second part of this address, in which I wish to lay before 

 you for consideration some questions in connection with 

 methods of collecting in Marine Biology which I have 

 had occasion to think about of late years. 



