1258 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 
tions owe their popularity to the fact that they are such excel¬ 
lent places for carrying on research work. Here the investiga¬ 
tor is supplied with the most necessary comforts and conveni¬ 
ences which will make his work most pleasant and profitable. 
He is free from all duties which might detract from the work 
in hand and fresh material may be had in abundance. In other 
words he enjoys good laboratory facilities while he is practically 
in the field. At the larger stations, also, the investigator will 
generally find himself associated with biologists from various 
quarters of the globe and his results will be more fruitful in 
consequence of the discussions, criticisms, and suggestions of 
his co-workers. 
Zoologists have taken a much more active interest in the estab¬ 
lishment of these stations than botanists and they deserve the 
chief, if not the entire credit for the founding of practically all 
of them, many of them being called zoological rather than 
biological stations. Yet the botanist is heartily welcomed at all 
of them and is accorded the same privileges and facilities for 
his work as the zoologist. 
In addition to the regular laboratory facilities, several of the 
marine stations possess important adjuncts in the way of sup¬ 
ply departments from which both living and preserved material 
is sent to the various universities for study in the class room, 
for museum demonstrations, or even for research work. Ma¬ 
terial destined for the latter will even be carefully prepared by 
special methods if so desired. By rendering such services, these 
supply departments greatly enhance the usefulness of such sta¬ 
tions and also widen their influence very much. Several of the 
stations themselves are adjuncts of universities, thus not only 
serving as supply depots but also offering excellent opportunities 
for work to their students of biology. 
Bor the past few years, extensive and elaborate international 
investigations have been in progress on the Horth sea. The 
various governments taking part in this work, have assigned 
their allotted portions of the researches to their respective 
marine stations, thereby stimulating a greater interest in these 
laboratories and adding greatly to their usefulness. While these 
investigations were undertaken with a practical end in view, 
