NATURE 
455 
especially as splendid dredging ground. This certainly must 
greatly promote zoological study in the United States. Already 
forty teachers of our Normal and high schools have applied for 
this summer's lessons ; besides, I will be accompanied thereto 
by my private students. Some of my special colleagues are 
ready to assist me, so that I may hope to obtain already some 
_ results before winter’s approach.” 
The next letter is dated ‘‘Penikese, Aug. 13, 1873,” and 
contains some more information :— 
“The school has been opened on July 8. Some of my 
friends have assisted me as teachers, several other naturalists 
are occupied with special studies. The bottom of the sea is 
very rich, the general situation quite excellent. The solitude 
which prevails is a great help for our teaching purposes. As 
students, forty teachers of our public schools are present, be- 
sides ten younger gentlemen, who prepare for a scientific career. 
“The buildings are very well constructed and adapted to their 
uses. The two chief houses have a length of 120 feet, anda 
breadth of 25 feet each. In the lower story are the laboratories 
each with 28 windows ; every student occupies one window, and 
has for himself one aquarium. In the upper story of each house 
are 28 bed-rooms, for every student one. The professors and 
naturalists are lodged in another house of the shape of a Greek 
cross. The dining-room is ina third house, which contains also 
the kitchen and the servants’ rooms. Besides we have an ice- 
house, a cellar for alcohol, stables for domestic animals ; about 
one hundred sheep are feeding in the pasture grounds of the 
island ; some smaller hutches contain rabbits, guinea-pigs, &c. 
‘* Next year physical, chemical, and physiological, laboratories 
will be constructed... . 
_ “T believe I did not tell you before, that my son presented 
me on my birthday with 100,000 dollars for the enlargement 
of the Museum. I intend to apply this sum chiefly to the 
augmentation of the collections, hoping the State will pay for 
the enlargement of the buildings. .. .” 
These letters prove that the name of this committee has not 
- beenill-chosen, for though the American Zoological Station has 
not been founded by its direct intervention, there can be little 
doubt that the foundation of the Zoological Station of Naples 
has been the signal for a new and powerful movement to assist 
zoological research. 
Of course the American Station has met with such extraordi- 
_ mary advantages, that a competition between it and Naples 
Station as regards means and favourable circumstances would be 
all but hopeless for the latter. Nevertheless it may prove the 
most powerful instrumentin carrying out strictly theself-supporting 
principle, by earning money through the Aquarium, and by 
letting tables in the laboratory. And though ary act of muni- 
ficence to the Naples Station is exceedingly desirable, and 
would be heartily welcomed (as the moment has not yet arrived, 
where any scientific establishment in this world had at its disposal 
more money than it knew how to spend) the greatest stress will 
always be laid upon these two elements. 
The reporter is further glad to state that the library of the 
Zoological Station has recently been augmented. A magnificent 
gift has been made bythe Zoological Society of London, 
which presented a complete set of its illustrated proceedings, 
The Royal Academies of Copenhagen, Naples, and Berlin, have 
also granted their biological publications, and promised to 
continue to do so in future. The Jenckenberg Institute in 
Frankfort-on-the-Main, as well as the Zoological Gardens of that 
city, have sent all their transactions ; as has the Smithsonian 
Institution in Washington, with respect to its biological publi- 
cations. Well-founded hopesare entertained that in a short time 
many other academies and scientific societies will follow the 
example of the above-mentioned. 
German publishers have continued to send their biological 
publications gratis to the library of the station, and great quanti- 
ties of books, pamphlets, and separata from publications in 
periodicals, have been forwarded from all parts of the scientific 
world through the kindness of the authors. 
From the side of the Zoological Station, though still in an 
embryonic state, considerable activity has been displayed with 
regard to furnishing continental zoologists with collections of 
well-preserved marine animals. Thus Prof. Wilhelm Miiller in 
Jena, has been supplied with Amphioxus and Tunicata, Prof. 
Greeff of Marburg with large quantities of Echinodermata ; 
mixed collections of every kind of animals have been sent to 
Prof. Oscar Schmidt, Strasburg, Prof. Claus, Vienna, to the 
_ Jenckenberg Museum at Frankfort, the Natural History Society 
at Offenbach, and many others. 
on oa = = = 
Several German zoologists have already announced their inten- 
tion to come during next winter and work in the station; a 
similar announcement is made through an Italian zoologist and 
through Prof. Foster. Iam informed that two young English 
biologists will arrive at the station in January. 
The committee hopes this report will convince the section, that 
the year between the present and the last meeting of the British 
Association has been one of steady and considerable progress 
for the Zoological Station at Naples. The committee refrains 
from making any further proposition to the section, but ex- 
presses its wish, that every influence may be used to secure to 
the station at Naples such assistance, as will serve to promote 
the eminent scientific ends for which it has been erected. 
DEPARTMENT OF ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY 
OPENING ADDRESS LY THE PRESIDENT, PRoressoR RUTHER- 
FORD 
In addressing you upon the subjects of anatomy and physio- 
logy, I would invite your attention to some of the features which 
characterise these departments of biology at this present time, 
and to some recent advances in physiology, the consideration of 
which you will find to be possessed of deep interest and im- 
portance. 
State of Anatomy 
Anatomy, dealing as it does merely with the structure of 
living things, is a far simpler subject than physiology, whose 
province it is to ascertain and explain their actions. It was 
not a difficult thing to handle such instruments asa knife and 
forceps, and with their aid to ascertain the coarser structure of 
the body. Accordingly, the naked eye anatomy of man has 
been fully investigated, and although the same cannot be said of 
that of many of the lower animals, it is nevertheless, as far as 
this kind of inquiry is concerned, a mere question of time as 
regards its completion. But minute or microscopic anatomy is 
in a different position. Requiring, as it does, the microscope 
for its pursuit, it could not make satisfactory progress until this 
instrument had been brought to some degree of perfection. 
Doubtless much advantage is still to be derived from improve- 
ments in the construction of this instrument ; but probably most 
of the future advances in our knowledge of the structure of the 
tissues and organs of the body may be expected to result from 
the application of new methods of preparing the tissues for exa- 
mina‘ion with such microscopes as we now have at our disposal. 
This expectation naturally arises from what has been accom- 
plished in this direction during the last fifteen years. For 
example, what valuable information has been gained regarding 
the structure of such soft tissues as the brain and spinal cord by 
hardening them with such an agent as chromic acid, in order 
that these tissues may be cut into thin slices for microscopical 
study. How greatly has the employment of such pigments as 
carmine and the aniline dyes facilitated the microscopical re- 
cognition of certain elements of the tissues. What a deal we 
have learned regarding the structure of the capillaries, and the 
origin of lymphatics, by the effect which nitrate of silver has of 
rendering distinctly visible the outlines of endothelial cells. 
What signal service chloride of gold has rendered in tracing the 
distribution of nerves by the property which it possesses of 
staining nerve fibrils, and thereby greatly facilitating their recogni- 
tion amidst the textures. Moreover of what value osmic acid has 
been in enabling us to study the structure of the retina. In the hands 
of Lockhart Clarke, Beale, Recklinghausen, Cohnheim, Stultz, 
and others, these agents have furnished us with information of 
infinite value, and those who would advance microscopical 
anatomy may do so most rapidly by working in the directions 
indicated by these investigators. In human microscopical 
anatomy, indeed, there only remain for investigation things 
which are profoundly difficult, such as, for example, the struc- 
ture of the brain, the peripheral terminations of nerves, the 
development of nerve tissue, and other subjects equally recondite 
But in the field of comparative anatomy there is far greater. 
scope for the histological investigator. He has only to avail 
himself of those reagents and methods which have recently 
proved so useful in the microscopical anatomy of the vertebrates ; 
he has only to apply those more fully than has yet been done to the 
invertebrates, and he will scarcely fail to make discoveries. For 
the lover of microscopical research, there is, moreover, a wide field 
ofinquiry in the study of comparative embryology ; that is to say 
