( ^5 ') 
with insburtients of precision— vViHi tlie micro- 
scope and with the microtome, used for cutting 
thin slices of animals so that you can study the 
most internal parts with hi,£(hly mawnifyiug powers. 
That plan was then taken up with such energy 
that it led for a time, one may almost say, 
to neglect of field work, and reached its cli- 
max, perhaps, in the great school of natural his- 
tory at Cambridge, under the late Professoi Bal- 
four and his pupils, in his school of research, in 
the eighties. And tiien ic began to be felt that the 
pendulum had swung too far in that direction ; 
that it was time to turn again to Nature, and that 
is Avhat gave rise to the biological station. It was 
felt that we were beginning to examine animals 
so minutely that we were likely to forget what 
animals were like, and so the combination was 
effected of the field naturalists and the laboratory 
anatomists. That combination led to the establish- 
ment of biological stations. A biological station 
is only a laboratory placed close to the edge of the 
sea, so that you can go from the laboratory very 
easily to the sea shore or bring the sea into tanks 
in your laboratory, and, by that means, have the 
animals living in your laboratory and bring your 
instruments of precision to bear upon the living 
animal and its habits. This is merely the seaside 
workshop of the naturalists, and once that rather 
obvious point had been observed, biological stations 
became important, and sprung up in all directions. 
Thirty years ago or so there were none ; now there 
are some forty or fifty, perhaps, scattered round 
the shores of the civilised woild, extending as far as 
California in one direction and Japan in the other 
at that very notable biological station at Misaki, 
on the shores of the inland .'^ea of Japan. There is 
also one in Australia, and one on the northern 
coast of Russia, within tlie Arctic Circle. The 
most notable of all, and one of the earliest, is the 
great biological station at JSaples, and the 
aquarium, whicli many of you have, perhaps, seen 
— it is one of the sights to visitors to Naples. But 
the best one in this country is at Plymouth — it 
does not belong to Plymouth, but is there because 
Plymouth is the best place to have it. It belongs 
to a London Society, or rather to the naturalists 
of the United Kingdom, the chief officials of which 
are the London biologists. Well, as you know, 
the Liverpool biologists, some 15 or 16 years ago, 
came to the conclusion that they must have a 
marine laboratory in order to conduct their work 
pi'operly. They established the first institution on 
Pullin Island, on the coast of Anglesey, and then 
we removed to this very much 
BKTTER CENTRE AT PORT LKIN, 
in 1893, I think, when Governor Walpoie opened 
for us our little pair of cottages on the other side 
of the bay, where we have worked for the last 10 
years nearly. And now we are in these much 
more favourable, almost palatial, quarters, which 
will certainly give us greater facilities for work — 
you will see for yourselves what these facilities 
are. There are nice little work-rooms placed at 
the disposal of members of oar Committee and 
students from the universities, Mr. Chad wick, 
our excellent resident curator — (applause)— has 
already had three or four university students 
working during the long vacation which dias 
just finished, and we shall hope to have 
a great many more next year. Then, there 
is this central part of the building, about 
which I must say a word or two. This is the 
part that is going to be opened to the public, and 
our view is that it has an educational value. You 
all know how, in high educational circles, of late 
years, great stress has been laid upon v/hat has 
come to be called Nature study. You know 
how the Board of Education — the Education De- 
partment — in London, has taken the matter up ; 
iiow schedules and schemes of Nature study 
have been authorised, and examinations held on 
the subject. Classes have been opened in public 
schools, and, in fact, the subject is a growing and 
important one. Nature study cannot be advanced 
better than by such buildings and such arrange- 
ments as tanks and museums, added to walks in 
the fields, and the study of the actual animals on 
the sea shore and the moors. And, in addition to 
these, which cannot be undertaken at all times, 
and in all weathers, a great deal of Nature study 
can be advanced by means of aquaria and 
well-arranged museums. That is coming to be 
understood in all the large towns, and I hope that 
this part — this central part— of this institution 
here may be made use of in this Island for 
Nature study classes. While talking, as I did a 
minute ago, of the facilities which the scientific 
part of this institution — a modern laboratory in a 
modern biological station— can afford to the uni- 
versity student, I should just like to add 
A WORD OF WARNING 
— a word in the other direction — and that is, it i.s 
not altogether good to provide too many facilities ; 
we nmst not let the worker or the student think 
that thefacilities ate everything ; and that brings to 
one's mind two little stories I happen to have 
heard of two great men, one of whom was Huxley?, 
and the other a man of whom we are going to 
hear more about from Mr Kermode — your great 
Manx naturalist, Professor Edward Forbes. The 
stories are these : Huxley, on one occasion, when 
he was shown a very finely equipped modern 
laboratory, said to the young students who were 
working there, " You fellows, you little know the 
difficulties we had to contend with in my young 
days, when one had to makeobservations with one's 
microscope lashed ^to the mast" — of course, that 
lashed to the mast" — was a mere figure of speech, 
Huxley did not mean that he had to lash his micro- 
scope to the mast, but it indicates forcibly the 
difficulties that the pioneers in the early days had 
to encounter. I believe Edward Forbes, on one 
occasion, said, when he found some of his students 
discussing the powers of their miscroscopes and 
criticising adversely some of the glasses what 
are called the objectives at the lower end of the 
miscroscope, that do the more important part of 
the work " Gentlemen, bear in mind that the 
glass — at the lower end of the miscroscope is not 
so important as the eye at the other end of the 
microscope. "Anditis not even the eye that he meant, 
but the brain that was behind the eye, because 
the eye is only a part of the optical apparatus. 
AVe also see the thing, probably, very much alike, 
but it is the brain behind the eye that makes the 
difference in the observation. Well, of course, 
Edward Forbes naturally brings one to your 
Society which has met here today, and I should like 
to conclude bj' saying a word or two specially 
directed at your Society, it I may take the privilege 
of an old friend 
Mr Kermode : And member, (lApplause) 
Professor Herdman : Yes, and as a member ot 
speaking plain words to my fellow-inembers. I 
have had the pleasure of meeting you on various 
occasions, and I have almost always met the same 
members. It is exceedingly plei^saut to meet oM 
