BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY AT NAPLES 



any value for the study of normal structures. How 

 to overcome this difficulty was one of the problems at- 

 tacked from the beginning at the Naples laboratory. 

 The chief part of the practical work of these experi- 

 ments fell to the share of Signer Lo Bianco. The suc- 

 cess that attended his efforts is remarkable. To-day 

 you may see at the laboratory all manner of filmy, di- 

 aphanous creatures preserved in alcohol, retaining every 

 jot of their natural contour, and thus offering unexam- 

 pled opportunities for study en masse, or for being sec- 

 tioned for the microscope. The methods by which 

 this surprising result has been accomplished are nat- 

 urally different for different creatures; Signor Lo 

 Bianco has written a book telling how it all has been 

 done. Perhaps the most important principle involved 

 with a majority of the more tenuous forms is to stupefy 

 the animal by gradually adding small quantities of a 

 drug, such as chloral, to the water in which the creature 

 is detained. When by this means the animal has been 

 rendered so insensible that it responds very sluggishly 

 to stimuli, it is plunged into a toxic solution, usually 

 formaline, which kills it so suddenly that its muscles 

 in their benumbed state have not time to contract. 



Any one who has ever tried to preserve a jellyfish, 

 for example, by ordinary methods will recall the sorry 

 result, and be prepared to appreciate Signor Lo Bi- 

 anco 's wonderfully beautiful specimens. Naturalists 

 have come from all over the world to Naples to learn 

 "just how" the miracle is accomplished, for it must be 

 understood that the mere citation of the modus ope- 

 randi by no means enables the novitiate to apply it 

 successfully at once. In the case of some of the long- 



127 



