elementary nature, not containing, I am afraid, much original re- 
search. It was, however, perhaps not exactly the first duty of a 
society in. those days to publish highly technical papers, and-most of 
the keen members — if not all — had daily work to perform which 
was not related to the study of plant life- 
I often wish we had more of the keen old amateur naturalists 
of the last generation with us now. There are too few at the present 
day who devote themselves to the study of nature in their hours of 
relaxation. 
About the year 1900, we find the Mueller Botanical Society 
with a number of ardent workers, amongst whom might be 
mentioned Messrs. Purdie, C. R. P. Andrews, Hursthouse, Drs. 
Tratman and Morrison, and the two German workers, Drs. Diels 
and Prietzel. 
Many new records resulted from their work in the years that 
followed. The scope of the Society was, however, becoming wider 
and so, in 1904, the title was changed to that of “The West Austra- 
lian Natural History Society.’ 7 Under this name the Journal was 
published until quite recently and papers coming within the scope 
of Botany, Zoology, and Geology were presented. Finally, a further 
change’ was made and the title expanded to read “The Natural His- 
tory and Science Society of Western Australia.” The last volume 
of the Journal to be published under this name will be No. V., con- 
taining papers and details of meetings ending with that of March 
10 th, 1914. 
MARINE BIOLOGY IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA. 
Let me now proceed to the subject which I have taken for my 
address. What is Marine Biology ? Perhaps at the same time 
I should try and answer the further question (which is still so often 
asked in the British Empire when you mention science), What is 
the Use of Marine Biology ? 
The answer to the first question is short — Marine Biology is 
the study of the organisms of the sea, both animal and vegetable; 
their relation to each other, and to the ever-changing conditions of 
their environment. To the second question I require to say more. 
In the first place I plead the study of matin e biology simply from 
the point of view of pure knowledge; from a desire to know and 
understand the earth and all that exists thereon. It is not generally 
known, I am afraid, that very many more groups of animals from 
the lowest to the highest are represented in the sea than on land 
and in the air. Very many problems of the greatest scientific im- 
portance are to be solved by the study of the sea and all that therein 1 
is. In fact it has been ably suggested that life originated in the sea, 
and that the saline constituents of mammalian blood indicate even 
