454 
periments of the Committee during the past year haye been 
directed to testing the efficacy of this modification of the instru- 
ment. Owing to circumstances, these experiments have not been 
as numerous or complete as they were intended to be, but, as 
far as they go, they indicate that the addition of the platinum 
tube does not result in any perceptible improvement, since the 
two pyrometers supplied to the Committee were found to be 
as much changed, after being heated to a good red heat, as the 
instrument experimented upon last year. 
Independent testimony, however, of considerable weight as to 
the value of Siemens’s pyrometer, as an instrument for industrial 
use, has been borne by Prof. Adolf Weinhold, of Chemnitz 
(Programm des kinigtl. hoherem Gowerbschule 2u Chemnitz, 1873), 
who after a careful, critical, and experimental review of various 
processes of pyrometry, arrives at the conclusion that this is the 
only ready-made pyrometer which can be recommended for use 
(**Von den fortig zu beziehenden Pyrometern ist nur das 
Siemens’sche brauchbar und empfehlenswerth,” /oc. cz. p. 42). 
The Committee, therefore, consider that the further examina- 
tion of Siemens’s Pyrometer is a matter of sufficient import- 
ance to justify them in the recommendation that the Committee 
be re-appointed, and that the original grant of 30/.—no part of 
which has yet been expended—be renewed, 
SECTION D.—BroLocy 
DEPARTMENT OF ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY 
Report of the Committee for the Foundation of Stations in 
different parts of the Globe. 
THE Committee reports that since the last meeting the 
Zoological Station at Naples has been completed, a photograph 
of which accompanies this report. 
Both the mechanical and scientific arrangements inside require 
perhaps two more months to be finished, and though the cost 
of the whole has exceeded in no small degree the estimates, 
Dr. Dohrn hopes nevertheless to balance them by finding new 
means of income for the establishment. He has succeeded in 
obtaining a subvention of 1,500/. from the German Empire, and 
his scheme of letting working-tables in the laboratories of the 
station has met with general approval. Two tables have been 
let to Prussia and to Italy, one to Bavaria, Baden, and the Uni- 
versities of Strasburg and Cambridge. A letter from the 
Dutch Minister of the Interior informs Dr. Dohrn that Hol- 
land accepts the offer of one table for the stipulated annual 
payment of 75/. Applications have also been made to 
the Imperial Government of Russia, both on the part of 
Dr. Dohrn and by different Russian scientific authorities. A 
correspondence has taken place between Dr. Dohrn and Pro- 
fessors Lovin and Steenstrup about a possible participation of 
the Scandinavian kingdoms, but has as yet led to no definite re- 
sult. The case with respect to Switzerland and Saxony has been 
similar, but hopes are entertained that these countries may join 
the others in their endeavour to support the Zoological Station, 
and afford every facility to their naturalists of profiting by this 
new and powerful instrument of investigation. 
Dr. Dohrn thinks it desirable to explain once more the leading 
ideas that have induced him to request the assistance of all these 
Governments and Universities, 
The Zoological Station has sprung up altogether in conse- 
quence of the desire to facilitate investigation in marine zoology, 
and to enable naturalists to pursue their studies in the most eflec- 
tive manner and with the greatest possible economy of money 
and energy. All those zoologists that have visited Naples during 
the last year—amongst whom have been Professors Gegenbaur, 
Claus, Oscar Schmidt, Pagenstacher—consider that this end will 
be fully attained by the organisation and arrangements made or 
intended in the station. They all agreed that it is in the 
highest degree desirable that nobody who cares at all for the 
progress ot zoology should fail to join Dr. Dohrn’s exertions in 
bringing about a universal participation in the expense of keep- 
ing up the new establishment ; and thus it is due to Prof. Oscar 
Schmidt’s influence that the Imperial Government at Berlin hired 
a table for the University of Strasburg, and to the initiation of 
Prof. Pagenstacher that the Grand Duchy of Baden has also taken 
one table, whilst Prof, Claus has promised his services to induce 
the Austrian Government to take a similar step. 
As is, we believe, universally known, no money-speculation 
whatever is contemplated by the founder of the Naples Station, 
NATURE 
_bryologists to carry on an investigation on comparative selection- 
[ Sept. 25, 1873 
in so far as money-speculation means a high interest and the 
return of the capital invested into the pocket of the founder. 
Nevertheless every honest means will be used to procure as large 
an income as possible, for more than one reason, There is not 
only the necessity incumbent upon the establishment to repay 
some of the capital to those who have lent money to Dr. Dohrn 
in order that he might complete the building in its actual en- 
larged state, a task for which his own means would not have 
sufficed, in spite of the German Government’s subyention. There 
is further reserve funds to be provided for the eventuality that the 
income of the aquarium might at any time not cover the outlay for 
the year’s management, And last, not least, it is just the plan to 
have every year a certain sum to spend fot scientific pursuits. 
If, for instance, Prof. Dubois-Reymond, as he has expressed to 
Dr. Dohrn his wish to do so, should proceed to Naples to carry 
on experiments on the electric torpedo, it needs would require 
not inconsiderable means to buy the necessary apparatus and phy- 
siological instruments, and to provide the famous physiologist 
every day with fresh materials to conduct his investigations on a 
scale large enough to yield a distinct result, Or to enable em- 
embryology, it requires means to buy large quantities of female 
sharks and skates, which are by no means so cheap asa foreigner 
might think. And for conducting well and accurately faunistic 
researches, everybody in this section knows what an amount of 
money must be spent in dredging-expeditions; how much 
trouble, how much time and work is necessary to get at the ani- 
mals and to determine theiridentity or non-identity with the known 
and described species. And this is one of the foremost duties 
which the Zoological Station will propose to itself, as it is too 
well known how great a confusion exists with regard to syste- 
matic and faunistic questions of the Mediterranean fauna. To 
bring this confusion to an end it will require more than one lus- 
trum and more than 1,000/7, There may perhaps have risen a 
prejudice among systematists against the new establishment as 
one which, in consequence of the partiality of its leader for Dar- 
winian views, might dispense altogether with Systematics. 
Nothing could be more erroneous than such an opinion. The 
leader of the zoological station is as little opposed to systematics 
as the Darwinian theory itself, He is of opinion—and the reporter 
can state this on the most absolute authority—that zoological bat- 
tles may be best won according to Count Moltke’s principle, “to 
march separately and to fight conjunctively,” thus leaving to 
systematists their own route as well as to anatomists, physiolo- 
gists, and embryologists, on condition only that they will, when 
meeting the enemy — error and ignorance—fight together. And 
he desires the zoological station to become such a battle-field, 
where all the different zoological armies may meet and fight their 
common adversaries. 
That such wars need much of the one element, which, accord 
ing to Monternouli, best secures victory—money, money, money, 
will be illustrated by two letters which Dr. Dohrn has received 
from Prof. Louis Agassiz, and which he has been authorised to 
publish. y 
The celebrated American naturalist writes, under the date 
‘‘Museum of Comparative Zoology, Cambridge, Mass., June 
Io, 1873,” the following :— 
‘It is a great pleasure and satisfaction to me, that I can tell 
you how, in consequence of the munificence of a wealthy New 
York merchant, it has become my duty to erect an establish- 
ment whose main object will be similar to that of your Naples 
station, only that teaching is to be united with it. The thing 
came thus to pass. During last winter I applied to our state 
authorities to secure more means for the museum in Cambridge 
(Mass.) Among the reasons, I alluded to the necessity of having 
greater means for trading purposes. I addressed my speech to 
our deputies, and it was afterwards reported in the newspapers. 
By chance the report fell into the hands of a rich and magnani- 
mous tobacco-manufacturer, Mr. John Anderson, of New York. 
He sent,on the same day, a telegram asking me whether I 
would be at home on the following day for two friends, which 
I answered by ‘yes.’ The two gentlemen came, by order of Mr. 
Anderson, offering mea pretty little island in Buzzard Bay, for 
the purpose of erecting a zoological school. I accepted this 
offer, of course, but added, that without further pecuniary 
means it would be difficult to teach there. After two days, a 
sum of 50,000 dollars was handed over to me, and now Lam 
erecting there a school for natural history, which at the same 
time will be a zoological station in the immediate neighbourhood 
of the gulf-stream, of the greatest assistance to our zoologists, — 
