382 REPORT— 1000. 



Requisition forms are placed beside the worker on which to notify his 

 wishes in regard to material or reagents, he is visited at frequent inter- 

 vals by members of the staff, and all wants are supplied in the most perfect 

 manner. 



The Staff of the station consists of : — 



1. Dr. Anton Dohrn, the founder and director. 



2. Seven scientific assistants — viz. Dr. Eisig, Administrator of the 

 Laboratories ; Dr. Paul Mayer, Editor of the Publications ; Dr. Gies- 

 brecht, assistant editor and supervisor of plates ; Dr. Gast, assistant 

 editor and supervisor of microscopic drawings ; Dr. Schobel, Librarian ; 

 Dr. Lo Bianco, administrator of fisheries and preparateur ; Dr. Hollands, 

 temporarily in charge of the microscopic sections department — all of them 

 well-known men, each eminent in his own line of investigation. The 

 post of assistant in the Physiological Department, formerly held by the 

 late Dr. Schoenlein, is now A^acant ; and in addition to the foregoing 

 there are : — Secretary, Mr. Linden ; two painters, and the engineer ; 

 with attendants, collectors, and others employed in the laboratories, in 

 the collecting and preserving departments, Aquarium, and elsewhere. 



This seems at the first thought a very large staff, but the activities of 

 the institution are most varied and far-reaching, and everything that is 

 undertaken is carried to a high standard of perfection. Whether it be in 

 the exposition of living animals to the public in the wonderful tanks of 

 the ' Acquario,' in the collection and preparation of choice specimens for 

 Museums, in the supply of laboratory material and mounted microscopic 

 objects to Universities, in the facilities afforded for research, or in the 

 educational influence and inspiration which all young workers in the 

 laboratory feel in each and all of these directions, the Naples station has 

 a world-wide renown. And the best proof of this reputation for excel- 

 lence is seen in the long list of biologists from all civilised counti-ies who 

 year after year obtain material from the station or enrol as workers in the 

 laboratory. Close on 1,200 naturalists have now, since the opening of the 

 Zoological Station in 1 873, occupied work-tables, and as these men have come 

 from and gone back to practically all the important laboratories of Europe 

 and America, from St. Petersburg to Madrid, and from California to 

 Japan, Naples may fairly claim to have been for the last quarter-century 

 a great international meeting-ground of biologists, and to have exercised 

 a stimulating and co-ordinating influence upon biological research which 

 it would be difficult to over-estimate. 



The opportunities for taking part in collecting expeditions at sea are 

 most valuable to the young naturalist. Dredging, plankton- collection, 

 and fishing are cai'ried on daily in the Bay of Naples by means of the two 

 little steamers belonging to the station, and a flotilla of fishing and other 

 smaller boats. Many of the Neapolitan fishermen are more or less in the 

 employ of the station, or bring in such specimens as they find in their 

 work. 



But although the work of the Naples Zoological Station is thus many- 

 sided, the leading idea is certainly original research. An investigator 

 goes to Naples to make some particular discovery, and he goes thither 

 because he knows he will find material, facilities, and envii^onment such 

 as exist nowhere else in the same favourable combination. The British 

 Association Committee consider it most important that these opportunities 

 for research should be open to British biologists in the future as they have 



