376 REPORT— 1891. 



prove to be modified Ttibicola, which have secondarily acquired an errant 

 habit. I am continuing my work on this group, and hope to collect some 

 embryological material and complete the experiments on the excretion of 

 carmine. 



I should like to mention here my deep sense of gratitude to Professor 

 Dohrn and the capable staff of the Stazione for all the kindness and 

 attention they gave me daring my stay with them. 



Having experienced the benefits which accrue to visitors at the Naple* 

 Zoological Station, I feel very strongly the importance of the British 

 Association continuing to participate in the many advantages afforded by 

 this institution. 



I will not dwell upon well-known advantages, such as the richness of 

 the fauna and flora ; such as the possession of a large and growing- 

 library, exceptionally complete in its acquisitions of current literature ; 

 such as the completeness and efEciency of the equipment, and the experi- 

 ence and matured advice of the staff ; yet I venture to recall the fact of 

 the existence of comfortable and modern phj'siological and bacteriological 

 laboratories, which are well attended by foi'cign investigators. In Naples, 

 moreover, referring now especially to morphology, so many masters have 

 produced work which has become classical that specialists in almost 

 every group of marine animals and plants have there all the conditions 

 enabling them to follow in the concrete and control the results of researches 

 with which books have made them familiar. 



The frequent opportunities for intercourse with the leaders of Con- 

 tinental schools of the biological sciences, and with some of their most 

 promising pupils, are of great importance. This applies more expressly 

 to Englishmen who, unlike most Germans, have not been educated at 

 two or more universities. In Naples there are brought to the student, in 

 many cases by their originators, the ideas prevalent and the theories in 

 course of development at a large number of foreign universities. One 

 can see carried out, in the daily course of practice, methods in vogue 

 abroad, and can at the same time observe the results of these methods, 

 form an independent opinion on their value, and be incited to suggest 

 improvements and new applications. Besides these mutual advantages 

 there is the further one, continually increasing in importance, whicli 

 consists in the obvious facilities for acquiring or improving a knowledge 

 of almost every Eui-opean language. 



So large a gathering of men engaged in original investigation cannot 

 fail to create what for their younger associates is a stimulating atmosphere 

 of research . The companionship of representatives of all the various depart- 

 ments in biology, with necessarily different trainings, will and does culti- 

 vate broader views and materially forwards the desirable state of thing.s 

 in which one science aids in advancing another, and, like a symbiotic 

 organism, derives equivalent benefits in return. In no other Marine Biologi- 

 cal Station are all the above circumstances combined as they are in that 

 directed by Professor Dohrn, and in no other is the endeavour to make 

 the institution truly international in character so prominent a feature in 

 the programme, and so successfully carried out. This endeavour it is 

 surely incumbent on the greatest seafaring nation to support by all pos- 

 sible means, and an adequate amount of support ought surely to come 

 from the British Association for the Advancement of Science. 



