MARINE BIOLOGICAL STATIONS 143 



the most cherished possessions of every zoological library. 

 Besides these monographs many volumes of a smaller annual 

 octavo journal have been published containing shorter but 

 still important papers, and one of the staff also edited a 

 yearly summary or record of the advances made in all depart- 

 ments of zoology in all parts of the world. 



But although the work of the Naples Zoological Station is 

 thus many-sided, the leading idea is certainly original 

 research. An investigator usually goes to Naples to make 

 some particular discovery, and he goes there because he knows 

 he will find material, facilities and environment such as exist 

 nowhere else in the same favourable combination. As a 

 result of the splendid pioneer work which the " Stazione 

 Zoologica " has done at Naples, every civihzed country has 

 now estabhshed its own biological stations, some larger, some 

 smaller ; but although these are of prime importance amongst 

 scientific institutions in their own countries, as enabling the 

 young investigator to commence research in living material 

 without leaving home, it must not be thought that they 

 detract from the advantages of a visit to the Naples station, 

 or affect the commanding position of that unique University 

 of Natural History. Notwithstanding Woods Hole, in the 

 United States, Roscoff in France, Plymouth and others at 

 home — aye, and the many others that are likely to follow — 

 Naples is still, or was before the war, the Mecca of the young 

 biologist, and will probably long remain the greatest biological 

 station in the world. 



Anton Dohrn, who was born in 1840 and died in 1909, 

 used to tell that his early studies in marine biology at Messina 

 in the sixties first inspired him with the idea of a great 

 international zoological station at some favoured spot on 

 the shores of the Mediterranean — and he wisely chose Naples. 

 There were many difficulties to be overcome. He received 

 support in some quarters, opposition from others, and 

 amongst his friends who gave encouragement it is pleasant 



