Jan., 1890. 
THE MARINE BIOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION. 
O 
donations from Governments, societies, publishers, and private 
individuals. Presents of biological works from those who 
either make little use of them themselves, or possess 
duplicates, will be gratefully received and acknowledged by 
the Secretary of the Association. 
Objects of the Association.— Many of our readers will 
not require to be told what great advantages must accrue to 
both pure and applied biological science from the investiga¬ 
tions carried on at the Plymouth Laboratory, but others may 
perhaps ask why they should be called on to support such an 
institution as that of the Marine Biological Association, the 
objects of which they do not understand. It will now, there¬ 
fore, be our endeavour briefly to indicate what important 
results the Association hopes to achieve. 
It will not be necessary to the purpose of this paper to 
insist on the great value the Marine Laboratory at Plymouth 
will be to English naturalists engaged in solving biological 
questions of purely scientific interest, nor to deplore the 
hindrance to such enquiry during the past entailed by the 
lack of a suitable establishment of the kind on our shores. It 
is sufficient to say that the marine laboratories of France, 
Germany, Austria, Italy, and America have produced results 
of the highest value to science, with which English naturalists 
may now hope to compete even more successfully than 
hitherto. One example will show how the establishment of 
marine laboratories on our coasts will benefit science: Professor 
Moseley stated at the preliminary meeting in 1884 that the 
development of even the common limpet was unknown owing 
to the difficulties of hatching out the eggs and rearing the 
embryos from the lack of necessary apparatus on the spot. 
Now we have good hope that lacunae, in our knowledge of this 
kind will soon be filled up. 
Turning aside then from the purely scientific aspect of the 
subject, we will attempt to indicate briefly the important aid 
which will be given to the development of our fisheries by 
investigations carried on in marine laboratories. But while 
we shall endeavour to enlist the sympathies of the reader for 
the Association on the lower ground of the immense aid it will 
give in settling economical questions, we would have him bear 
in mind that it has again and again happened that results of 
the greatest utility have been produced by scientific investiga¬ 
tions which once had apparently not the slightest practical 
bearing, but were of the most abstract character. 
Investigations into fishery questions to be of real practical 
use must be carried out in the strictest scientific manner ; 
when this is done, the results are most happy. For example: 
