30 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Mr. Cope's neighbouring Tobacco Works. There were 

 no facilities for work, very little experience, but plenty of 

 enthusiasm ; and possibly as a result of this combination 

 the struggling young department found strong support 

 and sympathy from a remarkable group of amateui 

 workers in Natural History, amongst whom may be 

 mentioned the Reverend H. H. Higgins, Mr. Frank 

 Archer, Mr. Isaac Thompson, Dr. Isaac Roberts and 

 Dr. Sibley Hicks. t Very much as a result of this some- 

 what unusual alliance between University laboratory 

 work under a professor and the field-naturalist's work of 

 the serious amateur, came the formation of the Liverpool 

 Marine Biology Committee in 1885 and of the Biological 

 Society a year later. The work of the Liverpool Marine 

 Biology Committee has been so intimately bound up with 

 the Natural History Department during the last twenty 

 years that, although this Committee is not strictly 

 speaking a part of the University organisation, it is 

 impossible to omit a brief record of its history. Established 

 for the purpose of exploring the Fauna and Flora of 

 Liverpool Bay and the neighbouring parts of the Irish 

 Sea, it brought a number of the local field-naturalists into 

 close relation with the University department and 

 laboratory methods, it gave rise to dredging expeditious 

 and observations and experiments at sea, which led on in 

 later years to Sea-Fisheries investigations, and it resulted 

 in the accumulation of collections which have proved of 

 considerable interest and scientific value. The " Local " 

 collection in the Museum of the new buildings has been 

 almost wholly obtained through the work of the L.M.B.C. 

 " In the summer of 1885 Mr. George Holt offered to 



f The volumes of ' The Fauna of Liverpool Bay ' and the 

 1 Transactions ' of the Biological Society contain records of the work 

 of these men, and others not mentioned who are, happily, still 

 working with us. 



