514 



NATURE 



[February i6, 191 i 



in which it is intended to give courses of popular 

 lectures on oceanography. This large lecture theatre 

 is ingeniously combined with a smaller one, which 



Fig. 2. — The large Lecture Theatre. View from Platform 



is suited to accommodate eighty persons, and is 

 suitable for conducting systematic scientific courses 

 of lectures to university students. The auditorium 

 of one theatre faces that of the other, 

 and the screen which forms the lan- 

 tern screen for each theatre, divides 

 the one from the other. The small 

 lecture room also forms additional 

 seating accommodation should the 

 large one be at any time crowded. 



The administrator of the institute is 

 Dr. Paul Regnard, who has for many 

 years been associated with the 

 Prince's work. His house forms part 

 of the building, so that the adminis- 

 trator is always on the spot. Under 

 him are three professors — Prof. 

 Berget, for the study of physical 

 oceanography ; Prof. Joubain, for bio- 

 logical oceanography ; and Prof. 

 Portier for the study of physiology 

 of marine animals and plants. Each 

 professor has a very comfortable 

 private room of his own, and at- 

 tached to it a large well-equipped 

 laboratory, with every scientific re- 

 quirement, and even many scientific 

 luxuries, including a spacious and 

 well-fitted photographic dark room to 

 each of the three departments. These 

 private laboratories are each large 

 enough to accommodate several re- 

 search students if the professor of the 

 department so desires. There are, 

 besides, a few small laboratories, 

 which are set apart for specialists of any nationality 

 to carry out any special research. 



There is a good library which will be subsidiary to 



NO. 2155, VOL. 85] 



the important library that already exists at the 

 museum at Monaco. Two large rooms are set apart 

 for aquaria, one contains four large tanks, and the 

 other is to contain a large number of 

 small aquaria, where living animals 

 can be observed. The septic dissect- 

 ing chamber and theatre forms a 

 novel and interesting part of the in- 

 stitution, and close by is a crema- 

 torium for the disposal of organic 

 waste products. There is an excellent 

 mechanic's workshop, fitted up with 

 every possible requirement, and in 

 charge of a capable mechanic of the 

 French Navy. Already, as an ex- 

 ample of work that can be done in 

 this workshop, it may be mentioned 

 that a small sounding machine, 

 which is used on board one of the 

 Prince's ships, was entirely con- 

 structed here. 



There is also a special room fitted 

 to contain some 96,000 lantern slides. 

 The " secretariat " is an important 

 part of the institution as well as a 

 handsome council chamber, in which 

 the " Conseil d'Administration " and 

 the " Comit6 de Perfectionnement " 

 meet. The secretary's room is deco- 

 rated in a very beautiful and original 

 manner by a young artist, M. 

 Laugier, who has passed several 

 years studying in the museum at 

 Monaco, at the Sorbonne, and at 

 Roscoff. He has thus become tho- 

 roughly familiar with the forms and 

 colours of many living marine animals and plants. 

 He has represented on the walls of the " secretariat " 

 a scene below the sea, so that the secretary lives in a 



Fig. 3. — Prof. Portier's Physiological Laboratory. 



veritable aquarium— wonderful molluscs, Crustacea, 

 and strange fish swimming round among rocks and 

 waving sea-weed, and the whole culminating in a 



