A HISTORY OF SCIENCE 



consolatory, in view of the very plebeian character of 

 the earth-worm, to know that various of the annelids 

 of the sea have a much more aristocratic bearing. 

 Thus the filmy and delicately beautiful structures that 

 decorate the pleasant home of the quaint little sea- 

 horse in the aquarium structures having more the 

 appearance of miniature palm-trees than of animals 

 are really annelids. One can view Dr. Dohrn's theory 

 with a certain added measure of equanimity after he 

 learns this, for the marine annelids are seen, some of 

 them, to be very beautiful creatures, quite fitted to 

 grace their distinguished offspring should they make 

 good their ancestral claims. 



These glimpses will suffice, perhaps, to give at least 

 a general idea of the manner of thing which the worker 

 at the marine laboratory is seeking to discover when 

 he interrogates the material that the sea has given 

 him. In regard to the publication of the results of 

 work done at the Naples laboratory, the same liberal 

 spirit prevails that actuates the conduct of the institu- 

 tion from first to last. What the investigator dis- 

 covers is regarded as his own intellectual property, 

 and he is absolutely free, so far as the management of 

 this institution is concerned, to choose his own medium 

 in giving it to the world. He may, and often does, 

 prefer to make his announcements in periodicals or 

 books issued in his own country and having no connec- 

 tion whatever with the Naples laboratory. But, on the 

 other hand, his work being sufficiently important, he 

 may, if he so desire, find a publisher in the institution 

 itself, which issues three different series of important 

 publications under the editorship of Professor Mayer. 



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