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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVI. No. 928 



type. His works are hardly less expres- 

 sions of his feelings than of his under- 

 standing. He does not present in the least 

 objectively his results, but he lets the 

 reader follow step by step his mental proc- 

 esses to the extent that we see reflected in 

 his works with absolute accuracy the intel- 

 lectual highly cultivated man keen for 

 battle. 



There is no doubt that there were times 

 in which Dohrn estimated his scientific 

 activities as far outweighing in value what 

 he had done for biology throiigh the found- 

 ing of the station. In such moments he 

 treated the criticism of his scientific opin- 

 ions with rough injustice, but in this he 

 had the precedent of such great predeces- 

 sors that it is suificient to mention the fact 

 only in order to avoid an exaggerated at- 

 tempt to enhance his character; an effort 

 Dohrn himself would have deprecated. 

 To-day when the sound of battle has passed, 

 those who have run counter to him most 

 sharply acknowledge not alone his great 

 love of truth, but accept the fact that those 

 great outbreaks of a passionate tempera- 

 ment were only the shadow-side of a nature 

 which must have been as it was in order to 

 produce along other lines iinequaled and 

 imperishable work. 



"When one sees how directly and without 

 deviation Dohrn followed his own scientific 

 course, the comprehension he showed of all 

 other branches of biology is doubly remark- 

 able. That he should welcome to the sta- 

 tion those engaged in all lines of biological 

 work was a part of the nature of the 

 undertaking. Dohrn had an unusually 

 clear insight into the various fields of our 

 science and of the manner in which they 

 were interdependent and yet complemen- 

 tary to one another. Perhaps the most 

 surprising thing about this apparently one- 

 sided morphologist was the large space 

 dedicated by him to the department of 



physiology. The addition to the first struc- 

 ture opened in 1888 was planned in order 

 to secure more space for this department 

 and the last great extension, a second time 

 doubling the size of the original building, 

 was put by Dohrn almost exclusively at 

 the disposal of physiologists. This new 

 edifice makes the modest older sister labo- 

 ratory appear almost in the nature of a 

 step-child. He did not have in mind that 

 physiology for which so much is promised 

 in all modern text-books. Physiology is 

 the knowledge of the vital processes and is 

 divided into physio-physics and physio- 

 chemistry. Before his eyes was a physiol- 

 ogy as comprehensive as that conceived of 

 by Johannes Miiller, and of which Naegeli 

 once said : " In its Holiest of Holies belongs 

 the origin of the organic world." The 

 time that has elapsed since the founding of 

 the great physiological department is still 

 too short to pass judgment upon the results 

 of this attempt to make physiology breathe 

 sea air. Still even now it can be seen that 

 the close contact which Dohrn established 

 between the study of animal life and devel- 

 opment and the exact methods of physiol- 

 ogy has stimulated all. His capacity to 

 see, beyond his own field of work and his 

 temporary favorite opinions, the real prob- 

 lem of what life represents and to approach 

 this question from different sides filled the 

 station with a spirit free from all pettiness. 

 Dohrn was an incomparable host to all 

 his guests. How pleasant it was to meet 

 with him in the library, to pass an evening 

 at his house, or better yet, to sail out with 

 him upon the bay to Cape Misenum or 

 Capri or to his well-beloved Ischia. It was. 

 a pleasure to see this man in happy com- 

 munion with nature, to chat with him seri- 

 ously, or jokingly, to listen to him as he 

 talked. Of him it can truly be said that 

 nothing human was foreign to his interests, 

 thanks to an almost fabulous wealth of ex- 



