

2.>2 



itErOKT — 1884. 



"I liiivo liitherto made but little prorjres? with these cxpcriracnts, 

 owing to the diflicultios I have had in constructing a tide-gauge to give 

 a daily and hourly register of the rise and fall of the tide, and also in 

 constructing an a))pHrdtns for registering the crush of the niino in a 

 similar manner. 



" With the little machine which you designed when j'ou were down 

 here I have been able to demonstrate perfectly the most minute move- 

 ments of the roof aiid floor in approaching oi another, but it is impos- 

 sible to bo sure as to whether the approach is accelerated or retarded as 

 the tide rises and falls until I have completed the construction of a clock 

 register. 



" I think that it will be better, therefore, to refrain from remarking on 

 this subject, further than to say that it is being worked at. 



" Joiix Stoddart, 



" To .ToiiN" Mii.Ni;, Ksf)., Takashiniii: '2C,f/i Jmir, 1881. 



Kolni Dai (Jakku, Tokio."' 



Report of the Committee, consistlnr/ of Professor Kav Lankkstkh, 

 jAIr. 1'. L. 8cLATi;u, Trofessor M. Fostku, INIr. A. SKixiWiCK, Pro- 

 fessor A. jNI. Mausiiall, Professor A. C. Haddon, and, Mr. Percy 

 Sladkx {Secretary), appoltitedfor the purpose of arrai}(/hif/ for 

 the occupation of a Table at the Zoological Stalloti at Xaples. 



EvKr.v year since their first appointment, your Committee have had the 

 agreeable duty of recording the annually increasing success of the 

 Zoological Station at Naples. On the ))resont occasion they arc able to 

 report that at no previous jieriod of its existence has the Institution been 

 in a more flourishing condition than now. Forty-one naturalists have 

 worked at the station during the past twelve; months, which brings the 

 number to nearly three hundred who have occupied its tables since the 

 commencement in ] S73. Large though the establishment already is, it 

 has for some time been desirable to make additions to tho buildine: in 

 order to furnish the means for still further extending the general scope 

 ■of the institution. From the very outset it has been the aim of the 

 founder, Professor Dohrn, to devcilop the physiological as well as the 

 morphological investigation of marine organisms, although the latter has 

 necessarily hitherto been the chief concern of the station. It is now 

 intended to erect anew building for a physiological laboratory, adjacent to 

 the ])resent station. For this purpose the municipality of Xaples has 

 voted oOU square metres of land ; and well-founded hopes are entertained 

 that very considerable contributions towards this enlargement of the 

 station may be expected from the Italian Cjlovernment. 



Further assistance for Dr. Dohrn's undertaking is forthcoming from 

 Germany, where a public subscription is now being organised throughout 

 the country, in consequence of a meeting held in Berlin on June 2(3, for 

 the purpose of presenting the Station with a larger seagoing steamer, 

 which is to be fitted up as a floating laboratory ; and it is also proposed to 

 endow the Station with a Pension and lleserve Fund. The meeting in 

 question was attended by a number of eminent statesmen and scientists, 

 the Minister of Public Instruction, together with the Prefjident and Vice- 



