CHAPTER VII 

 MARINE BIOLOGICAL STATIONS FOR RESEARCH 



In addition to actual expeditions at sea, the science of 

 oceanography has gained much during the last haK-century 

 from observations made on shore by many biologists of all 

 kinds working at what have come to be called " Biological 

 Stations." In order to give some account of the scale on 

 which the best of such institutions have been organized and 

 equipped, and of the facilities that are offered for investiga- 

 tions, I have rewritten with some necessary alterations and 

 additions an article founded on notes taken during a visit 

 of some weeks to the celebrated zoological station at Naples 

 and printed in the Popular Science Monthly for September, 

 1901.^ I have added at the end a short account of the 

 founder. Dr. Anton Dohrn, from personal recollections of 

 that remarkable man. 



It is interesting to remember that the movement to estab- 

 lish institutions for the investigation of marine problems on 

 shore, in which Anton Dohrn was a pioneer, took definite 

 shape just at the time (1872) when the ** Challenger " was 

 starting on her memorable voyage round the world. 



Biological, zoological, marine stations are all of them 

 merely the seaside workshops of the modern naturalist ' ' writ 

 large." But they offer wonderful facilities for the most 

 advanced and best kinds of biological work, and it is almost 

 impossible to overestimate the influence they have had in 

 the advancement of our knowledge of living nature. The 

 field-naturalist of old, before the days of university labora- 

 tories, studied his animals and plants aUve in the open, or 



^ Made use of with the courteous permission of the Editor. 



134 



