;3o6 REPORT— 1894. 



•danger in its whole constitution, is the uncertainty in which its future 

 lies. The fact that individual initiative and individual responsibility have 

 hitherto been appealed to exclusively for the existence of the Zoological 

 Station has caused in many minds apprehension as to what might befall 

 such a highly complex organisation if individual initiative and responsi- 

 bility should become unable, by the natural course of events, to guarantee 

 its further development, and even its existence. 



At the last International Medical Congress in Rome a voice was heard 

 pointing out the danger which threatened the Zoological Station, and this 

 voice was that of my friend Professor Michael Foster, of Cambridge. I 

 venture to make a few remarks on what my friend Foster said on that 

 occasion. Speaking of the desirability — nay, the necessity — of inter- 

 national organisation, he said : ' An example of this is the work done at the 

 Zoological Station at Naples. This is in reality an international institution, 

 although it has been chiefly originated by one man ; such an institution 

 ought to be international, and ought not to depend for its existence upon 

 the energy of one man.' In thanking Professor Foster heartily for the 

 credit which he gives me for originating the station, I must after all 

 ■express my belief that the Zoological Station will, even in the future, find 

 it safest to depend uj^on one man's energy, if the one man is ready and 

 -able to take upon himself the burden of the responsibility. It will take 

 some time before the ideal of which Prof essor Foster spoke — 'international 

 organisation of science ' — can be realised. We are still too deeply imbued 

 with national prejudice and national ambition to acknowledge readily any 

 scheme which might be offered to help science by combined international 

 action. I have had on many occasions to experience the power of these 

 influences during my career at the head of the Zoological Station, and 

 even now I can hardly say that the character attributed by Professor 

 Foster to the Zoological Station is so firmly established as to justify fully 

 the title international. De facto it is Germany which pays half the sum 

 necessary for the maintenance of the Zoological Station at Naples, though 

 Germany does not claim any privilege over other contributors. I ti'ied to 

 arrange with the Prussian Ministry of Public Instruction for a transfer of 

 the direction of the station in case of my death or inability ; it was not, 

 however, accepted on account of the difhculty of governing an institution 

 of this complex nature without endangering its cosmopolitan character. 

 On the other hand, many countries receive dii'ect or indirect advantages 

 from the existence of the Zoological Station at Naples, but do not accept 

 any or a due share of the burden of its maintenance. 



Years ago I undertook to organise the ' Zoologischer Jahresbericht ' on 

 the footing of international contributions, and failed to such an extent 

 that I had almost to give up the whole Jahresbericht. National prejudice 

 and private interest could not be moved to give way to higher aims. I 

 could easily furnish interesting mateiial in regard to the manner in which 

 these endeavours came to be frustrated, but I will rather defer it to another 

 occasion, since I am still resolved to try again, and perhaps on a greater 

 scale, the undertaking which failed fifteen years ago. Professor Foster's 

 •own speech and many other utterances of authoritative character prove 

 undoubtedly that what I attempted in 1879 will soon be generally taken 

 xip, and will doubtless prove one of the most important steps in the 

 organisation of science. Meanwhile I have been busy preparing for the 

 continuance of the station's monarchical constitution by winning over 

 the municipal authorities of Naples to revise the original contract, which 



