1881 .] 
185 
[Annual Reports. 
In this connection it is appropriate to mention a quiet effort 
which has been steadily gaining strength for several years. It 
has been considered desirable to found a summer laboratory, 
sufficient to supply the needs of a class of persons who have 
begun to work practically under our direction, but have hitherto 
had no convenient means for pursuing their studies on the sea- 
shore. 
Some two years ago a young pupil realizing this need gave the 
Custodian her check for two hundred dollars, to begin a subscrip- 
tion with, and afterward the Science Club sent an amount sufficient 
to raise the sum to a little over three hundred. This is deposited 
in the Treasury where it will remain until required for the 
construction of a permanent laboratory. We are sure that such 
a laboratory is needed for a limited number of persons, such as 
our own pupils in Natural History and some of the teachers of 
the Boston Public Schools, about a dozen in all, but we are not 
sure of any real demand outside of these. 
Nevertheless the Woman’s Education Association, though 
neither urged or even solicited, has courageously offered to test 
this important question by an experiment. Mr. Van Yleck has 
also undertaken the practical superintendence of the Laboratory 
with the same spirit, and we shall soon I hope be able to state 
just exactly what is essential for the carrying on of our summer 
work. 
The generosity of Mr. Henry Saltonstall has enabled the Cus- 
todian to put up a few aquaria for the use of the Laboratory, and 
set in the necessary water pipes, etc. This is a permanent im- 
provement in our apparatus which has long been needed, and will 
render the work of instruction much more efficient when we are 
able to add a few more aquaria to those already in place. 
The summer of 1880 was passed at Annisquam, and an expedi- 
tion along the coast of Maine was made in the new boat alluded to 
in the last Annual Report. This boat is a schooner of about 
seventeen tons, new measurement. She will appear in our record 
as the Arethusa, hailing from Gloucester, with the Custodian as mas- 
ter and owner. She has proved to be well adapted to our work 
and is a good sailer. 
