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A BIOLOGICAL STATION IN JAMAICA. 

 A letter has been received from the Hon. Adam Brown, Dominion 

 Commissioner at the late Jamaica Exhibition, enclosing a copy of the 

 following letter from Lady Blake, which will be read with much interest 

 l)y the readers of the Ottawa Naturalist. The Marine Biological 

 Station at Naples, now under the able direction of its founder, Dr. 

 Dohrn, is the most important in the world, and students attend the 

 course of study from all parts of Europe and America. The follovving 

 is from Science of Sept. i8th, i8gi, and will show how highly the work 

 of these stations is valued : 



" At present, as we learn from a statement recently made by Pro- 

 fessor Sclater in Natute^ the zoological station at Naples rents contin- 

 uously about twenty tables, each at $500 a year. These tables are 

 rented to different States and universities of Europe, as follows : Prussia, 

 4; Baden, i; Bavaria, i ; Saxony, i ; Hesse, i ; Wurtemberg, i ; Italy, 

 7 ; Switzerlmd, i ; Hungary, i ; Holland, i ; University of Cambridge 

 (England), i ; British Association, i. Besides these twenty-one regular 

 rents, a number of others, varying from eight to sixteen, are made 

 every year to some or all of the following governuients : Russia, Belgium, 

 Austria, Spiin, and some Italian provincial governments. The aver- 

 age number disposed of in this way is estimated at ten, making the 

 total number thirty-one. The annual income from the tables would 

 thus amount to about $15,000 a year. The revenue from the sale of 

 preserved specimens amounts to about $3,500, while the receipts from 

 the admission of visitors to the aquarium amounts to about $5,000. 

 The whole income is thus approximately $24,000. • But the annual 

 expenditure of the station has now reached $32,000, so that there is a 

 deficit of from $8,000 to $10,000 to meet. This heavy deficit is met 

 every year by a subsidy from the German government- 



'This is a good example,' says Professor Sclater, 'of the liberal way 

 in which science is encouraged and supported in the " Fatherland," 

 and is the more noteworthy because the object of its well-bestowed 

 bounty in this instance is localized on foreign soil.' 



Indeed, this is a splendid example of the high api)reciation in 

 which pure scientific research is held by an enlightened government — 

 an example which we should be glad to see followed in this country." 



