THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE 



99 



THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE 



ANTON DOHRN, 1840-1909 

 In the death of Anton Dohrn zoology 

 mourns a veteran leader, and many 

 zoologists feel — though some of these 

 may not have known him personally — 

 that they have lost a genial and helpful 

 friend. Every one knew him directly 

 or indirectly, and one may even say 

 that there are but few zoologists who 

 are not in some way or another in his 

 debt. For he founded the great station 

 at Naples, and fostered its activities in 

 many directions. It is no mean test of 

 his successful management that it is 

 supported by the funds of many nations 

 and of many diverse institutions. 



Dohrn's monument will ever be the 

 Stazione Zoologica : its inception was 

 his, its upbuilding, its policy and its 

 completion — if such a work can ever 

 be called completed. From the time of 

 his early studies — while indeed he was 

 in Messina, in the sixties — he had ever 

 before him the vision of a completed 

 zoological station, an international one, 

 vast in size, splendid in equipment. 

 And with prophetic eye he selected 

 Naples as the field of his life-work. 

 He soon found that his project was not 

 an easy one to carry out, especially in , 

 days when sea-side laboratories were t 

 rare and obscure, and when indeed 

 zoology had hardly come to its own in 

 the scheme of sciences. But Dohrn 

 surmounted the difficulties, scientific, 

 political and financial. In the last 

 regard, when the Academy of Berlin 

 failed to endorse his project, he showed 

 to friends and enemies his faith in his 

 convictions by putting his personal 

 funds, almost all of them, into the 

 melting pot. In the end his arguments 

 were so convincing that the German 

 government granted him a handsome 

 annual subsidy, and insured the success 

 of his undertakim* 



Dohrn's history can here be given only 

 in the briefest lines. He was born in 

 1840, the son of a North German Fabrik- 

 besitzer of scientific tastes. He became a 

 student of Schnell in Jena, devoting him- 

 self especially to the study of the arthro- 

 pods. He was appointed privat-docent; 

 then he traveled, theorized and wrote, 

 hut he taught little; apparently he did 

 not care for the class-room, and even at 

 the end he could point to but few whom 

 he had directly trained. At the out- 

 break of the war of 1870, Dohrn be- 

 came a soldier and fought through the 

 campaign; then he returned to his 

 | great plan of the stazione and his 

 struggles in its behalf. The opening 

 of the first building was in 1874, the 

 publications (Mittheilungen and Me- 

 moirs) of the station began in 1879, 

 the second building was completed in 

 1890, the third building (for physiol- 

 ogy) in 1907. Through all these years 

 he continued his difficult researches, 

 publishing his results in a series of 

 memoirs. From the first to the last 

 Dohrn showed a rare many-sidedness; 

 to many he was ever the genial friend, 

 to a few the explosive and repentant 

 enemy ; at one moment he was the tact- 

 ful executive, at another the amateur 

 of music and art, at all times the 

 idealist and the profound and con- 

 scientious scholar, ever ready (too 

 ready some said) to accept the evidence 

 of facts and to change his scientific 

 views. He had qualities, all in all, 

 which made him a personage of first 

 magnitude in the annals of zoology. 



Dohrn's activities in research could 

 readily be made the theme of a volume. 

 For he was a tireless worker and 

 his publications touch many of the 

 most important problems of his day. 

 His earlier years were spent in the 

 study of the embryology of the arthro- 



