IX. 
A BIONOMICAL INVESTIGATION OF TIIE 
NORFOLK BROADS. 
By Frank Balfour Browne, M.A., F.Z.S. 
I tew l January 26th, 1904- 
Bionomics, or the study of the inter-relationship between living 
forms and also between them and their physical environment, is 
a branch of Biology which may almost he said to owe its existence 
to the work of Darwin. It was not until after the publication of 
the theory of Natural Selection that biologists began to recognise 
that Natural History was not only a collector’s hobby, but a subject 
capable of considerable expansion. The idea of a struggle for 
existence led to a closer observation of animals and plants in their 
natural surroundings, and the main principles of the Darwinian 
theory having once been accepted, it became the object of natura- 
lists to render an explanation of every observed phenomenon in 
living organisms. 
The changed outlook upon life also led to a collecting mania, and 
for a time scientific literature consisted largely of lists of species, 
which were of less value from the fact that often a hastily made 
collection would be described under the title of the Fauna or Flora 
of the locality visited. 
However, the new interest in Biology gradually settled down 
into an earnest enquiry, and methodical research took the place of 
desultory exploration. The Marine Fauna attracted a large number 
of naturalists owing to its richness, and in 1874 the first Marine 
Biological Station was inaugurated at Naples. Since that time 
Biological Stations for Marine Research have sprung rip in many 
places throughout Europe and America. I need only mention the 
Plymouth Laboratory, Port Erin, Millport on the Clyde and the 
Gatty Marine Laboratory as some of those in Great Britain. 
Fresh-water research had been carried on by Leeuwenhoek, 
Rosenhof, Swammerdam, Reaumur and many others before the 
