43^ 



NATURE 



[April ^, 1872 



which is occupied by the chief zoologist. Before the 

 window a table for microscopical work is placed, sur- 

 rounded by small tanks for breeding eggs and keeping 

 alive larva; and other smaller animals. Each tank is fur- 

 nished with a continuous current of fresh sea-water, which 

 can be weakened or strengthened, or completely stopped, 

 as it pleases the zoologist. The rest of the room is re- 

 served for the business matters of the staiion. Next to it 

 comes the library-room, large enough to keep a library of 

 25,000 volumes. Two tables for microscopical work 

 placed near one another occupy the place near the 

 window, some tanks of diflerent sizes, completely fur- 

 nished with tubes, &c., are placed at the disposal of 

 those who occupy the tables. Next follows the great 

 laboratory. In the centre of the room we find at least 

 twenty to thirty tanks of different sizes, each of them 

 with its own current of sea-water ; the two great front 

 windows afford light for four working tables placed near 

 them. The walls may be occupied by physiological in- 

 struments and by other apparatus which will be required. 

 Galleries on the walls and across the centre of the room 

 yield enough space for placing all sorts of collections and 

 other things on them without hindering the free passage 

 in the laboratory. The last room on this northern side 

 will be occupied by the first assistant zoologist, and be 

 furnished, like that of the chief zoologist, with working 

 table and tanks. Both the corners of the house are occu- 

 pied by towers, and these towers contain two small 

 chambers of nine feet square ; they are also to b? fur- 

 nished with tables and some tanks, so that in all ten 

 zoologists may, at the same time, tind complete accom- 

 modation for their work. 



The south side of the upper part of the station will 

 be occupied by four rooms, sufficiently large to allow the 

 collections to increase for many years, and the laboratory 

 to take possession of double the space it will occupy at 

 the beginning. The west and east side afford some 

 private rooms for the use of the naturalists employed in 

 the management of the station. Under the roof eight 

 other smaller rooms complete the whole disposition of the 

 space inside the building. 



Now let me say some words on the functions these 

 organs of the Zoological Station are to exhibit in future. 

 There are first to be noticed the great advantages which 

 win be offered to the single student. Whoever works 

 with marine animals will be painfully acquainted with 

 the difficulty of preserving them alive longer than two 

 or four days. They almost invariably die, and decom- 

 pose very soon. If one now considers that anatomical 

 and stil more embryological problems are only to be 

 solved during weeks or months of undisturbed and 

 indefatigable exertion, it is quite evident what eaormous 

 advantage must result from the possibility of keeping 

 these animals alive during weeks. And this will be 

 effected by the help of tanks with a continuous stream 

 of sea-water. The sea being always in motion, caused 

 either by the waves or still more by the vast number 

 of currents, makes the constant alternation of fresh 

 and aerated sea-water necessary for the life of the 

 animals. The imitation of these currents and the arti- 

 ficial injection of air into the tanks will render it pos- 

 sible to keep even embryos and larvaj alive, which 



formerly could never be studied on account of their 

 early death. 



Besides, everybody knows how often fishermen bring 

 eggs or larva; which are completely unknown to the 

 zoologist. They are, perhaps, highly interesting ; perhaps 

 belonging to animals whose eggs have never been seen 

 before, as they deposit them far off in the open sea or on 

 the bottom. The single zoologist in his small room in a 

 Naples Hotel, with some bottles or basins at his disposal, 

 puts them into a tumbler, changes the water regularly, 

 and thus succeeds in keeping them alive for a week, but he 

 forgets the changing once, and to-morrow they are dead. 

 A good many will even not live in spite of the changing 

 of the water, because they require the constant stream 

 running over them. The single zoologist in the station, 

 on the other hand, puts them into a tank, sets the stream 

 in motion, and has nothing to do but to watch their 

 development, and the final disclosure of the embryo, 

 or the metamorphoses of the larva-, and may completely 

 succeed in getting a key to their nature and their re- 

 lation to other animals. 



Considering now the all-importance of embryology and 

 development in the present state of zoology, it is easy to 

 recognise in the continuous stream of the sea-water in 

 the station a fundamental novelty in the conditions for ; 

 the progress of scientific zoology. Go a little further. It 

 is rarely advisable to work with one subject alone when 

 on the sea-coast. There are so many incidents that 

 change the conditions of the work you have in hand, . 

 that you are much wiser to have, whilst working at one ; 

 chief problem, one or two smaller ones with it. But 

 chance is often a paradoxical thing ; it will entirely inun- 

 date you one day with excellent material for all these 

 problems, and cause you great embarrassment as to what 

 to take fiist ; and another day it will yield you nothing 

 whatever, so as to force you to idleness. Now again 

 with a series of tanks and streaming sea-water you can 

 pursue everything quite at your leisure, stop one investi- 

 gation when you like, or take up another, or drop 

 them both, and work for one day with some interesting 

 novelty, without being afraid of spoiling the material of 

 the old objects, and losing the opportunity of getting 

 through it. And everybody knows what a consolation it 

 is to be always capable of taking your principal line of 

 work up again, whilst you are not forced to deny yourself ' 

 the chance of taking some notice of new arrivals, if it j 

 even were only for a little instructive side glance of some 1 

 hours. j 



These are some illustrations of the great facilities and j 

 advantages of the station, yielding thus in future to scien- 

 tific workers immense economy of time, money, and power. 

 But this is not all that the station will do. Every well- 

 instructed biologist is aware of the great step anatomical 

 science made when first Cuvier created and afterwards 

 Johannes iVliiUer reformed Comparative Anatomy. The 

 description of the different types, the organs and their 

 homologies, their histological constitution, similarity and 

 dissimilarity, became well worked out, and extended the 

 range of our insight over almost all living animals. 



Physiology ought to have gone the same length, follow- 

 ing exactly the lines of anatomical research, to tell us 

 something about the functions of all the organs and 



