MARINE BIOLOGICAL STATIONS 137 



galleries, placed in the Villa Nazionale, the beautiful public 

 garden which occupies that part of the shore of the wonderful 

 Bay of Naples. Surrounded by palms, cacti, aloes, with 

 groups of statuary, fountains and minor temples, looking out 

 upon the incomparable panorama from Vesuvius by Sorrento 

 and Capri to Procida and Ischia, there is probably no finer 

 situation in the world than that occupied by what is unques- 

 tionably one of the most important of zoological institutions. 



As to this importance, no university laboratory approaches 

 it. There is no other laboratory where the work-places are 

 occupied by some forty or fifty doctors of science and pro- 

 fessors and investigators of established reputation from all 

 parts of Europe and America, who have come there to do 

 original work, attracted by the fame of the institution and 

 its director ; no laboratory where forty such workers can 

 be kept supplied with abundance of fresh material for their 

 researches (of the most diverse description) brought from the 

 sea at least twice a day ; no laboratory where there are such 

 excellent facilities for work and such charming opportunities 

 for scientific intercourse. 



The staff of the institution a few years before the war, 

 when I last visited it, consisted of : 



(1) Professor Dr. Anton Dohrn, the founder and director. 



(2) Seven Scientific Assistants or heads of departments, 

 one of the most interesting of whom was the late Dr. Lo 

 Bianco, the administrator of the fisheries and preparateur. 



(3) In addition to these scientific heads of departments 

 there were : — the business secretary, two painters, and the 

 chief engineer ; and, finally, about thirty attendants, collec- 

 tors and others employed in the laboratories, in the collecting 

 and preserving departments, in the aquarium and elsewhere. 



This may seem at the first thought a very large staff, but 

 the activities of the institution are most varied and far- 

 reaching, and everything that is undertaken is carried to a 

 high standard of perfection. Whether it be in the exposition 

 of living animals to the public in the wonderful tanks of the 



