June 8, 1883. J 



SCIENCE. 



509 



iu his own countrj- which has the disposal of a 

 table : in the majorit}' of cases, the application 

 has to be made to the government. The station 

 lets its tables to scientific corporations or to gov- 

 ernments at a 3'earl3' rental of four hundred dol- 

 lars each. There are, at present, twentj' tables 

 taken, of which the greater number belong to 

 Austria, Germany, Eussia, and Italj'. Holland 

 and Belgium have one each, and England has 

 two. There is room in the station for thirtj'. 

 The rapid development of the institution is 

 shown bj' the fact, that, when it was first opened 

 (in Januar3% 1874), only seven tables were 

 taken. About two hundred and thirty biolo- 

 gists — among them, verj' manj' of the highest 

 eminence — have worked in the laboratories of 

 the station in the nine j-ears of its existence ; 

 and the published works founded on the studies 

 so carried out form a considerable proportion 

 of the total addition to biological knowledge 

 produced during that period. The brilliant 

 researches of Francis Balfour on the develop- 

 ment of elasmobranchs, which formed such a 

 large step in the progress of vertebrate embrj'- 

 olog3", were carried out chieflj' during the time 

 he spent at the table of Cambridge university, 

 in 1874, 1875, and 1877 ; and he alwaj-s fully 

 acknowledged the debt he owed to the zoologi- 

 cal station and its staff. Professor Grenacher 

 commenced his researches on the eyes of ar- 

 thropods at the station in 1876, — researches 

 which resulted in his classical work, which is, 

 up to the present, the principal authority on 

 the suliject. The brothers Oscar and Eiehard 

 Hertwig carried out their interesting work on 



the histology of the Actiniae at Naples. F. E. 

 Schultze and Oscar Schmidt, two of the prin- 

 cipal living spongiologists, have availed them- 

 selves of the resources of the station ; and 

 Professor Glaus, Dr. Hubrecht, Dr. Spengel, 

 and Dr. Chun are other names whose celebrit}^ 

 in zoology is connected with the institution. 

 Last j'ear an American zoologist. Dr. Whit- 

 man, carried out some important researches in 

 the Naples laboratory on the curious parasites, 

 Dicyemidae. 



The number of those belonging to the per- 

 manent scientific staff of the station is eight, 

 including Mr. Petersen, the engineer, to whose 

 skilful and successful management of the 

 machinery the wonderful regularity' and efii- 

 cienc}' of all the mechanical arrangements is 

 due. The other seven are biologists who are 

 occupied in the preparation of monographs of 

 various classes, for the series published by 

 the station ; while thej' divide among them 

 the work connected with the issue of the two 

 periodical publications, and the routine duties 

 of the laboratories. Dr. Dohrn acts as direct- 

 or, and represents the station to the outside 

 world ; while the chief duties of management 

 devolve on Dr. Eisig, to whose devotion and 

 foresight the enterprise owes much of its suc- 

 cess. The duties of librarian are discharged 

 bj' Dr. Brandt, whose name is well known in 

 connection with the recent discoveries that 

 have been made, as to the existence and sig- 

 nificance of s3'mbrosis in animals, and who is 

 engaged at present on the monograph of the 

 racliolarians of the gulf. Dr. Lang, in the 



