228 : The American Naturalist. [March, 
THE COLD SPRING HARBOR BIOLOGICAL 
LABORATORY. 
By H. W. Conn. 
As elsewhere stated in these pages the American Associa- ` 
tion for the Advancement of Science at its recent meeting ap- 
propriated a sum of money to pay for an investigator’s table at 
the Biological Laboratory at Cold Spring Harbor. This 
laboratory is little known to most readers of the AMERICAN 
NaTuRALIst and a brief account of its history and arr 
are, therefore, here given. 
The last fifteen years has seen established upon our coast a 
number of stations designed for the purpose of studying 
marine biology. The various stations have been quite differ- 
ent in their aims and in theircharacter. Some of them have 
been purely private institutions where a few students are 
invited to the sea shore to make use of a private laboratory. 
In other cases certain universities have established marine 
laboratories designed primarily for their own students, al- 
though receiving students from elsewhere, should they choose 
to attend. In some cases the laboratories thus organized have 
been ‘public institutions, and designed from the outset to attract 
all classes of students interested in biology, and to furnish to 
students and teachers in general a place where they may come 
for the purpose of pursuing summer work at the sea shore. 
Some of them have been planned wholly or almost wholly, for 
advanced work of investigation, others entirely for elementary 
work of instruction. Of the various laboratories above desig- 
nated as public institutions only two have continued to exist 
for any length of time. One of these, well known to every 
biologist in the country, is the excellent school, stationed at 
Woods Holl, Massachusetts. The second one, not so well 
known, but rapidly coming into notice, is located at Cold 
Sprińg Harbor, Long Island. 
The laboratory at Cold Spring Harbor is, in some respects, 
especially favorably located. At a distance of an hour’s ride 
