MUSEUM GODEFFROY. 699 



different people. In some, the hatching period, if it may be called 

 such, is long, in some short, the differences depending upon the dif- 

 ferent degree of preparedness of the contagium. 



The autliors refers with particular satisfaction to the untiring- 

 patience, the admirable experimental skill, the veracity in thought, 

 word, and deed, disjslayed throughout the inquiry by his assistant Mr. 

 John Cottrell, who was zealously aided by his junior colleague Mr. 

 Frank Valter. 



MUSEUM GODEFFEOY. 



By Prof. HENEY A. WAED. 



TN one of the quarters of the " old city " in Hamburg, untouched by 

 the great fire of 1842, is a little square around which crowd tall, 

 narrow buildings with high, pointed roofs. The quaint architecture, 

 the flat barges in the canal, and the queer trucks with harness enough 

 on each horse to stock a team of four, remind one of the middle ages ; 

 but the busy railway-station near by and the forest of shipping on the 

 Elbe bearing the flags of every civilized nation tell us that this is 

 the great commercial port of Northern Europe. Here lives Herr Csar 

 Godeffroy, one of the merchant-princes of Hamburg, whose ships for 

 half a century have been sailing over every ocean. His great wealth 

 has been expended liberally and in many ways, as Hamburgers all 

 bear witness. But in one unique method Herr Godeffroy has long been 

 doing a great work for science in Europe a work that has made his 

 name honored among the savants of Germany. This is the originating 

 and sustaining an immense museum, now called after his name; an 

 establishment which has for its object the collection and distribution 

 of zoological material, especially in the department of the inverte- 

 brates. 



Herr Godeffroy had a deep love for the beautiful and rare in Nature, 

 and his captains broiight to him contributions from all seas. This plan 

 he encouraged, and finally enjoined it upon them, furnishing them be- 

 fore each departure with nets, dredges, casks of alcohol, and other equip- 

 ments for collecting largely wherever they went. Most of his ventures 

 were among the South-Sea Islands, and thence came to him splendid 

 crustaceans, mollusks, star-fishes, sea-eggs, holothuria, corals, sponges, 

 sea-fans, and the like. The collection as received increased so over- 

 whelmingly in quantity and variety (for this systematic and princely 

 research had developed a marvelous wealth of new forms), that Herr 

 Godeffroy determined to make it available to science in the fullest 

 manner possible. So he gave up one of his warehouses, fitted it up 

 from cellar to garret for the storage and handling of this material, and 

 engaged curators to assort and put in shape for permanent preserva- 



