178 REPORT— 1881. 



(8) That the pentagonal nerve-ring, throngh having no influence 

 on the pedicellarife or on the local reflex action of the spines, has a more 

 centralizing function than any other part of the nervous system. 



The work of the Station is being continued this autumn at Oban. 

 The Committee again respectfully solicit assistance and urge the renewal 

 of the grant. 



During the autumn of 1880, a total sum of 120Z. was spent in connec- 

 tion with the Zoological Station while at Cromarty. The 50Z. voted by 

 the British Association was partly used for providing apparatus and 

 reagents, and partly for paying for the use of a steam-launch and for 

 boatmen. 



Report of the Committee, consisting of Dr. M. Foster, Professor 

 KoLLESTON, Mr. Dew-Smith, Professor Huxley, Dr. Carpenter, 

 Dr. G-WYN Jeffreys, Mr. Sclater, Mr. F. M. Balfour, Sir C. 

 Wyville Thomson, Professor Eay Lankester, Professor Allman, 

 and Mr. Percy Sladen {^Secretary'), appointed for the purpose 

 of arranging for the occupjation of a Table at the Zoological 

 Station at Naples, 



Your Committee have the pleasure of reporting the continued success 

 and prosperity of the Zoological Station at Naples. During the past 

 twelve months a greater number of naturalists have availed themselves 

 of the facilities there afforded for investigation than in any previous 

 year. This of itself is an encouraging testimony to the excellent 

 management of the establishment, and also forms an index of the con- 

 tinned and increasing support accorded to the Station by all the chief 

 European nations. It may be said truly, and without exaggeration, that 

 no institution could be more cosmopolitan in its princij^les of organisa- 

 tion, or fulfil more admirably the purpose of its existence. The biologists 

 of all civilised counti-ies are under a debt of gratitude to Professor 

 Dohrn for the energy and self-sacrifice he has Ijestowed on this noble 

 undertaking. 



Bach annual report issued from the Station contains an account of 

 some general improvement made in the laboi'atories, or of the addition 

 of new appliances or apparatus likely to be of service to the working 

 naturalist ; in fact, every opportunity is taken by the Directorate to 

 provide whatever the developments of modern methods of investigation 

 render indispensable, or even desirable, for the success of a student. 



(Laboratory). — It is scarcely necessary for this Committee to specify 

 in detail the various items added to this department during the past year, 

 and of which a full account is to be found in the last ' Bericht ilber die 

 Zoologische Station ' by Dr. Dohrn, published in the ' Mittheilungen aus 

 der Zool. Station,' Bd. ii., Heft 4. It will sufiice to mention that the 

 recent additions to the laboratory comprise micro-spectroscopic and 

 polariscopic appai^atus, a new Du Bois-Reymond section apparatus, and 

 also a valuable series of chemico-physiological apparatus ; the latter 

 through the munificence of the Berlin Academy, by whom an excellent 

 microscope (nf Hartnack's make) has likewise been presented. This 

 instrument will naturally be placed in the first instance at the disposal 

 of the occupant of the Academy table. 



The general arrangements for the circulation and distribution of sea- 



