THE advantages of biological stations for

purposes of research and instruction have had many advocates in recent years.

rived at in one locality may be extended

and corrected in a score of others; and finally some biological Froebel, who shall demonstrate the disciplinary and cultural value of ecology as a field of biological instruction and establish a standard for others to imitate. In their work we may look for the happy combination of the sympathetic observation of the old-time naturalist, the technical skill and searching logic of the morphologist, and the patient zeal and ingenuity of the experimental physiologist, a combination, let us hope, that shall unlock not a few of the secrets of the world of life."

"There can be little doubt" says Parker, "that the study of zoology is most profitably as well as most pleasantly begun in the field and by the seashore, in the zoological garden and the aquarium." "The establishment of biological stations has done more to advance the study of zoology than any other one thing in this generation," says Conklin. "Certain desiderata are evident," adds Kofoid: "more biological stations, so that the conclusions ar

Modified by the author for THE INLAND EDUCATOR from an article in Science.

"It is unquestionably true that the tendency within recent years" says Ward "has been to make the university-trained scientist a laboratory man, unacwork out of doors and among Thus, both through the ininvestigators in the case of

those stations which do not carry on directly any educational work, and through the teaching of those which do conduct summer instructional courses, new life will be instilled into the teaching of natural history throughout our country."

"Every teacher in the biological sciences must strive as best he may against the tendency to make house-trained students, unacquainted with living things as they actually exist, and against the tendency to narrowness, which is the bane of all specialists," says Herrick.

The biological station of the Indiana University was planned with a well defined object in view, the study of the variation of

For the first year the trustees of the university granted the use of the apparatus of the zoological department provided the station would in no way be an expense to the university. After the first year the trustees provided generously for the permanent equipment of the station. To help defray expenses a number of courses of instruction were offered for a few students. It was expected that there would be about ten in the party the first year, but there were nineteen.

The conditions for biological work, coupled with camp life on a fine lake, five miles from the nearest village and free from university lecture-hour appointments, proved so attractive that during the second summer

the non-migratory vertebrates in some unit of environment. The station was to be located on a lake which would present well circumscribed boundaries within which the conditions were supposed to be nearly uniform at any time and from season to season.

Here large numbers of all the non-migratory vertebrates were to be collected, their characteristics tabulated and compared with similar series from other lakes. We were, in short, to conduct a statistical inquiry into evolution.

For the work in hand many of the lakes were available. Our location was therefore determined by the finding of an old boathouse suitable for a laboratory on the shore of Turkey lake.

the number of students rose from nineteen to thirty-two, and in the third to sixty-three, and in the fourth to 103, representing eight

states.

Certain restrictions reduced this number to ninety-one during the present season. The large increase in the number of students kept us more than busy to provide for their increasing needs, but the collection of the material for the study of variation was not neglected.

The material accumulated during the first four years of the station is unique. We have, for instance, thousands of specimens of the yellow perch of different broods collected in successive years. These when examined will show:

selection in killing off individuals with any given peculiarity.

At the end of the fourth year the station was moved to Winona Lake where the facilities for caring for the increasing number of students are much better. Two buildings were erected and given to the station by the Winona Assembly and Summer School. They are situated in the angle where Cherry creek enters Winona lake, eighteen miles from the original location. They are sur. rounded by a great variety of natural conditions of water, woods, swamps and meadows. The buildings are 20 by 45 feet. One or both will be lengthened to 60 feet during the winter.

One or

teriological laboratory. This is simply a pit beneath the stairway about a foot deep and cemented. The temperature without the use of ice did not vary more than 1° from 20 centigrade during the entire summer. The upper floor in one building is given to elementary zoology and that of the other to botany. We have small sheds for incubators away from the buildings to avoid the danger of fire. The bacteriological kitchen and the lecture room are separate tents. The most urgent need of the station is a building for general lectures and for embryology.

The water supply deserves mention. Artesian water was struck 75 feet below the

surface midway between the two buildings. From this we get a flow of about 5,000 gallons per day. The water is received in a small tank and this is tapped by pipes leading to each floor of the buildings where there are small pitcher pumps. The overflow from the receiving tank leads into a larger steel tank with covers. This tank is used for experiments with blind fishes. The overflow from this leads into pools constructed for experimental work.

The springs about Winona Park flow in part into decorative pools. These will be used for the experiment in rearing cave animals in the light. One of them about thirty feet long is now inhabited by an experimental colony of blind Amblyopsis where their habits can be observed without the restrictions imposed by the conditions found in a cave.

In recognition of the fact that "the teacher who has no time for research rapidly becomes an ineffective and uninspiring teacher, and that overteaching defeats its own ends," the instruction should be in the nature of a guiding, the giving not of a string of recipes, but of sound principles enabling the student to work out his own salvation.

Since, wherever he may go, the student must adapt himself to his environment, it is the plan to catch what we can and study what we catch rather than to follow fixed courses. The facilities for catching, however, are very favorable. We have the lake in front of us, the woods behind, the creek on one side, and a meadow on the other. Here the entire day of the student is given

to collecting and exploring expeditions, lectures and laboratory work.

A list of the students who have been at the station would include a majority of the teachers of biology in Indiana and several have found appointments elsewhere.

During the first summer, courses in zoology, embryology and survey work were given by the writer and Mr. W. J. Moenk

haus.

During the past summer, courses of instruction have been given in zoology, botany, cytology, bacteriology, embryology, and survey methods. As soon as the necessary buildings can be secured, courses in neurology and comparative psychology and physiology will be added.

The department of instruction is self-sustaining, but facilities for research are still limited and here is an opportunity for some public spirited citizen.

"Research in all directions, in fact, meets with such reward that it should be sustained by all persons who desire to encourage the progress of knowledge. But the rich men of our country do not discriminate between this function and that of teaching. They found universities with princely liberality, but research has to struggle with poverty of means and deficiency of time. Great libraries are founded, but the work in the laboratory from which issue the books which create libraries receives comparatively little substantial encouragement. substantial encouragement. * * * Initiative and discovery are the conditions of progress, and no better service could be rendered to humanity than the creation of opportunities for their activity.'

A

LCOHOL is made from starch which is abundant in barley, rye, and corn. It is a light colorless liquid having a pleasant odor and a pungent taste.

Alcohol is used extensively in the manufacture of drugs and medicines, and is useful in many ways in the arts and sciences. But it is used chiefly and most extensively as the basis of alcoholic beverages. Pure alcohol acts as a poison, quickly destroying every form of plant or animal life immersed in it. It destroys the life,

but preserves the body from disintegration and decay. Alcohol in dilute form acts at first as a stimulant, and then as a sedative or anesthetic, and if taken in a sufficient quantity the anesthesia will be profound-as complete as that caused by chloroform or ether. When the anesthesia passes away there may be headache, sickness of the stomach or other effects indicating abnormal action; but these are soon gone, leaving no evidence of permanent change of tissue. One may pass through this experience, at inter

vals of two or three weeks, many times before any abnormal changes appear. Dilute alcohol, as in fermented liquors, used temperately, generally produces pleasant and agreeable effects. It acts as a food, it promotes digestion, quiets the nerves, drives away care, promotes sociability, inspires hope, and produces a comfortable restful state of mind and body' that aids materially in fitting them for a renewal of activity. The intemperate use of alcohol in any form is harmful and the results are often disastrous. It poisons the blood, weakens the muscles and disorders the brain; it obscures the moral sense, clouds the intellect, dulls the sensibilities and stimulates the passions; it degrades the man morally, mentally and physically. In special cases its baneful effects cannot be exaggerated or overdrawn.

The intemperate use of alcoholic beverages may not cause specific diseases, but it does cause such a degeneration of tissue that the system is easily invaded by many forms of disease. The mind also becomes erratic and weak, the victim often sinking into insanity.

The intemperate man often squanders his property, loses his capacity for work and becomes poor, or through his obscured moral sense he becomes a criminal. In fact, intemperance is a fruitful source of poverty and crime. Thus overindulgence in alcoholic liquors becomes a public as well as a personal calamity.

EFFECTS DIFFER WITH TEMPERAMENT.

People differ widely in their susceptibility to the evil influence of alcoholic beverages.

The American Indian is more susceptible than the white man, and the white man is affected more easily than the negro. The Irishman is more susceptible than the Englishman, and some Englishmen are more easily affected than others. For this reason the temperate use of alcoholic liquors has different meaning for different persons and nationalties. For the American Indian and other susceptibles a temperate use of alcoholic beverages must mean total absti

nence.

For the great majority of people it might mean the use of fermented liquors up to the equivalent of two ounces of pure alcohol daily. Used in this manner alcohol is said to be a food something like starch. Regarding the influence of the use of alcoholic liquors upon nations history gives no very reliable testimony. We know that some of the Greeks, Romans, Egyptians and other Eastern nations used alcoholic beverages, often to excess. But we do not know whether intemperance was common so that it became an important factor in the degeneration of

those people. The Mohammedan nations of Asia are generally abstemious, and so are the Turks of Europe, while the other nations of Europe use alcoholic liquors very freely. Herbert Spencer says "The Spartans were brutal but sober, while the Athenians were more highly cultured but by no means sober. And who would contend that in social type or conduct the Asiatic is superior to the European, or that sober Turkey is higher in social life than whisky-drinking Scotland. Evidently the relations between drinking habits and kinds of social life are obscure. We cannot assert a regular proportion between temperance and civilization,nor between intemperance and moral degradation."

THE DRINK HABIT AMONG GERMANS, ENGLISH AND

AMERICANS.

The German races from the earliest times have been noted for their drinking habits, in many cases developing the grossest intemperance. In old English and Danish times the excess of drinking was great, and drunkenness was a common vice. If we may believe the testimony these Germanic races have easily surpassed all others in the quantities of alcoholic liquors used, and in the universality of their use by all grades of society. Yet, along with these drinking habits, there has been a gradual development along every line of human activity, so that the savage and barbarous tribes of the early centuries, as Germans, Englishmen, and Americans have become the leading, the foremost people of the world. They are equal to any others physically and surpass all others intellectually, industrially, morally and socially. Did their drinking habits help or hinder these people in their upward and forward march, did they succeed in spite of their use of alcoholic liquors, or did the use of liquor really help them in reaching their present high position? Who can tell? It is a question for study. The evils arising from the use of alcoholic liquors by susceptibles, are in many cases frightful; they can hardly be exaggerated, but happily such cases are rare-are the exception. A lecturer reported in the New Voice of Aug. 31, 1899, claims that there are 700,000 drunkards in the United States. The number seems great, and one wonders if the claim is legitimate, and wonders if the number includes all hard drinkers who are still able to work every day, who are active members of society, or whether the number only includes imbeciles. If the number is correct, it means that less than one per cent. of the people of the United States are drunkards. If this number were total imbeciles from drink it would hardly