2.52 report— 1884. 



"I have hitherto made but little progres3 with these experiments, 

 owing to the difficulties 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 apparatus for registering the crush of the mine in a 

 similar manner. 



" With the little machine which you designed when you were down 

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

 ments of the roof and floor in approaching one another, but it is impos- 

 sible to be 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. 



" John Stoddaet, 



" To Johx Milne, Esq.. Takashima: 26th June, 1884. 



Kobu Dai Gakko, Tokio." 



Report of the Committee, consisting of Professor Kay Laxkester, 

 Mr. P. L. Sclater, Professor M. Foster, Mr. A. Seduwick, Pro- 

 fessor A. M. Marshall, Professor A. C. Haddox, and Mr. Percy 

 Sladex (Secretary), appointed for the purpose of arranging for 

 the occupation of a Table at the Zoological Station at Naples. 



Every 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 present oceasiou they are able to 

 report that at no previous period 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 ] 873. Large though the establishment already is, it 

 has for some time been desirable to make additions to the building 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 develop 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 a new building for a physiological laboratory, adjacent to 

 the present station. For this purpose the municipality of Naples has 

 voted 300 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 Government. 



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 26, for 

 the purpose of presenting the Station with a larger seagoing steamei', 

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

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

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

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





