698 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



tion made his name well known in the Austrian coast land and far 

 beyond. After the publication of an article on the subject in the 

 ^Viener Zeitung he was requested, by the Imperial-Royal Ministry 

 of Trade and National Economy, to make a special jiresentation 

 of his views respecting the possibility and methods of cultivating 

 sponges artificially in Dalmatia. He first asked for means for ex- 

 perimenting, as furnishing the prime and most essential method of 

 determining where and how a sponge culture could be instituted 

 with the best prospect of success. The request was not granted, 

 but Schmidt was requested to furnish data respecting the provisions 

 and measures within reach which might be employed with advan- 

 tage till further information could be obtained concerning the 

 adaptability of sponges to propagation from such local experiments 

 as might be carried on through the industrial and commercial cham- 

 bers of Dalmatia. The Notes on Sponges in the Adriatic Sea and 

 an article of similar import in the Triester Zeitung of March 12, 

 1862, were the answer to this request, and they were followed by 

 Schmidt's having placed at his disposal, by the exchanges of Trieste, 

 in the next season, money and the control of the war steamer Hent- 

 zis for use in scientific and practical investigations on the Dalmatian 

 coast. With the assistance of his brother, Eugcn, he carried his ex- 

 periments to a successful issue at Sebenico, Zlarin Yalle Socolizza 

 on Lesina, Curzola, Lagosta, Meleda, and Ragusa, but especially in 

 the more favored stations of Zlarin and Lesina, and demonstrated 

 the possibility of artificial propagation. In order to test tlie prac- 

 tical value of the experiments, propagating stations were estab- 

 lished on the island of Lesina and visited by Schmidt every spring. 

 The results of the experiments were presented in a report to the 

 Imperial-Royal Ministry of Commerce and National Economy, in 

 which the possibility of artificial propagation was emphatically 

 affirmed." 



Unfortunately, the Dalmatines have not been quick enough to 

 take advantage of the opportunity thus offered to them to estab- 

 lish a new industry on their not very busy coast. Bucchich con- 

 tinued Schmidt's experiments till 1872, but no capitalists have been 

 found to establish the cultivation of sponges on an extensive and 

 permanent scale. 



Another enterprise, however — the Zoological Station at Trieste, 

 to which Schmidt for a time devoted all his energy — has had a more 

 fortunate realization. The plan of it was developed by Carl Vogt, 

 but it would never have been erected if Schmidt's practical sense 

 had not adapted the plan to the actual needs of the case and the 

 financial conditions imposed by the state, and if he had not given 

 the weight of his personality to the accomplishment of it. 



