ON THE ZOOLOGICAL STATION AT NAPLES. 97 



The Vuhlicatimis of the Station. — The progress of the various works 

 nndertaken by the Station is here summarised : — 



1. Of the 'Faona und Flora des Golfes von Neapel ' no monographs 

 have appeared since the last report ; but it is intended to publish during 

 the course of 1889 monographs by Dr. Falkenberg on ' Rhodomelea?,' 

 and by Dr. Delia Valle on ' Gammarini.' 



2. Of the ' Mittheilungeu aus der Zoologischen Station zu Neapel,' 

 vol. viii., parts i., ii., iii., iv., with 25 plates, and vol. ix., part i., with 

 7 plates, have been published. 



3. Of the ' Zoologischer Jahresbericht,' the whole ' Bericht ' for 1887 

 has been published. 



Extracts from the General Report of the Zoological Station. — The officers 

 of the Station have courteously furnished lists (1) of the naturalists who 

 have occupied tables since the last report, (2) of the works published 

 during 1888 by naturalists who have worked at the Zoological Station, 

 (3) of the specimens sent out by the Station during the past year. 

 These details are appended, and speak for themselves as to the activity of 

 the Station. 



The British Association Table. — Four naturalists have occupied the 

 British Association table during the past year : Mr. F. Ernest Weiss for 

 four months; Mr. W. L. Calderwood, for a little longer than four months; 

 I )r. N. A. Cobb, for eleven weeks ; and Mr. Arthur Willey for three' 

 weeks. All of these gentlemen have furnished reports on the nature of 

 their investigations, which are appended. 



Two applications for permission to use the British Association table 

 daring the current and coming year have been received. The Committee 

 hope the Council will enable them to sanction these applications by re- 

 newing the grant (lOOZ.) for the ensuing year. In the opinion of your 

 Committee the assurances of the utility of the British Association table 

 now presented fully justify them in strongly recommending the renewal 

 of the grant. 



I. Report on the Occupation of the Table, by Dr. N. A. Cobb. 



I received in Munich early in November the welcome permission to 

 use for a limited period the British Association table in the Zoological 

 Station at Naples. I started at once for Italy, and with the kind a°sis- 

 tanco of the genial officers of the station was soon settled and at work. 



I proposed to make some comparative studies among worms, and to 

 pay particular attention to the affinities of the Nematodes. Abundant 

 material was supplied me, and I soon had a collection of common annelids 

 and parasitic nematodes ready for investigation, and next turned my 

 attention towards the free-living marine nematodes. 



Here I met a difficulty. To study these worms under the microscope 

 one by one in a living condition seemed to me very tedious, and hardly 

 to answer all my purposes. I wished for a large number of successfully 

 preserved specimens for comparative study. It became apparent at 

 once, however, that the common methods were too rough to give good 

 results with these delicate little creatures. I resolved therefore to 

 grapple once more with the problem of avoiding shrinkage during the 

 process of hardening and preserving. 



This was no new battle-field to me. A number of years a^o. while 

 at work on some delicate freshwater alga) {Spyrogijra), I had^tried to 



1889. jj 



