Although the Plymouth Laboratory was opened only on June 30th, investigations have been carried on by the Association for the last two years. These inquiries have necessarily been of a general and preliminary character, but they have resulted in the acquisition of definite precise information on several subjects, in which previously only conjecture or complete ignorance prevailed. This information includes discoveries of some value and completeness in themselves, but its chief importance lies in the fact that it shows in what directions and by what means the instruments of inquiry supplied by the Plymouth Laboratory, and its organisation, can be applied without delay to fruitful work. It was with just this object in view that the Council instituted these preliminary inquiries; without them, when the apparatus of the Laboratory was ready for action, the staff would have had to make tentative experiments before they knew what problems the neighbourhood of Plymouth gave the material for solving. With them the fisheries and the marine Fauna of Plymouth are mapped out, and problems to be worked out are definitely proposed, so that the tanks and the powers of the zoologists can be fully occupied without loss of time.

St. Andrews as a site for the study of marine animals has a reputation probably at least as ancient as the foundation of its University (the oldest Scottish, viz. 1411), for amongst the early records of the latter allusion is made to the marvels of the sea and its inhabitants as a means for improving the minds of its students. For a long time, however, no special lectures on natural history were given. The scientific advantages of the situation, indeed, were first prominently recognised by Edward Forbes and the brothers Goodsir. Thus the former, for instance, picked up, for the first time in Britain Echiurus, on the sands after a storm; and the two Goodsirs, as students, were familiar with its marine rarities, and afterwards read many zoological papers at its Literary and Philosophical Society. Prof. John Reid, the physiologist, studied the development of zoophytes and mollusks in its rock pools, and Prof. G. E. Day, his successor in the Chair of Anatomy and Physiology, and Miss Otté, lost no opportunity of interesting the students in marine zoology. Besides, the occupants of the Chair of Natural History from its foundation in 1753, and including Professors Vilant, Dick, Forrest, Cleghorn, Adamson, Ferrie, Macdonald, and Nicholson, as well as Dr. McVicar, the University lecturer, all more or less drew from the rich marine resources in their proximity.

The Liverpool Marine Biology Committee was formed in March, 1885, for the purpose of investigating thoroughly the Fauna and Flora of Liverpool Bay and the neighbouring parts of the Irish Sea. The aim of the Committee is not merely to draw up an accurate list of the species found in this locality, but also to observe and record the relative numbers, the size, the colours, and the condition generally of the specimens, the exact localities in which they are found, the other species of animals and plants associated with them, and their mutual relations as food, enemies, or competitors. In this way it is hoped that a mass of observations will be accumulated which may be of use in determining the geographical distribution of various forms, the nature of the conditions which influence species, and the relations existing between the different plants and animals. It was felt at the outset that this work was exactly that department of biological investigation which could be best carried out by an organised body of workers who would subdivide the area to be investigated, and the groups of animals and plants to be worked up between them, and would carry on systematic observations year after year, sending in periodic reports upon their work. The value, in fact the absolute necessity, of this organisation, division of labour, and systematic arrangement, for the successful accomplishment of the objects in view, has been felt all along by the members of the Committee and those naturalists who have worked with them; and the results attained so far have, I think, fully justified their belief in the benefit to be derived from scientific organisation.

The “Scottish Marine Station for Scientific Research” has now been at work for a little over four years, so that the present seems a fair opportunity to inquire what has been accomplished by its means. The object of the present article is to supply this information, and to show to what extent the results obtained have justified the expectations of its promoters.