i6o 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XVIII. No. 450 



SCIENCE: 



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THE QUESTION OP A TABLE AT THE NAPLES 

 STATION. 



At present, as we learn from a statement recently made 

 by Professor Sclater in Nature, the zooloo^ical station at 

 Naples rents continuously about twenty tables, each at $500 

 a year. These tables are rented to different States and uni- 

 versities of Europe, as follows: Prussia, 4; Baden, 1; Bava- 

 ria. 1; Saxony, 1; Hesse, 1; Wurtemberg, 1; Italy, 7; 

 Switzerland, 1; Hungary, 1; Holland, 1: University of Cam- 

 bridge (England), 1; British Association, 1. Besides these 

 twenty-one regular rents, a number of others, varying from 

 eight to sixteen, are made every year to some or all of the 

 following governments: Russia, Belgium, Austria, Spain, 

 and some Italian provincial governments. The average 

 number disposed of in this way is estimated at ten, making 

 the total number thirty-one. The annual income from tables 

 would thus amount to about $15,000 a year. The revenue 

 from the sale of preserved specimens amounts to about $3,500, 

 while the receipts from the admission of visitors to the aqua- 

 rium amounts to about $5,000. The whole income is thus 

 approximately $24,000. But the annual expenditure of the 

 station has now reached 1^32,000, so that there is a deficit of 

 from $8,000 to $10,000 to meet. This heavy deficit is met 

 every year by a subsidy from the German government. 

 "This is a good example," says Professor Sclater, "of the 

 liberal way in which science is encouraged and ."iupported in 

 the 'Fatherland,' and is the more noteworthy because the 

 object of its well-bestowed bounty in this instance is local- 

 ized on foreign soil." 



Indeed, this is a splendid example of the high appreciation 

 in which pure scientific research is held by an enlightened 

 government — an example which we should he glad to see 

 followed in this country. ; 



But what interest has America taken in the Naples sta- 

 tion? With the single exception of Williams College, which 



rented a table for one year, our colleges and universities 

 have contributed nothing towards maintaining this magnifi- 

 cent establishment. A considerable number of American 

 zoologists have been permitted to occupy tables at the sta- 

 tion, free of charge, through the generous courtesy of its 

 director and founder. Dr. Dohrn. While we have been the 

 recipients of such exceptional favors for some ten or fifteen 

 years, we have thus far, for some reason or no reason, failed 

 to take any decided action towards securing a permanent 

 table. During the past year a table has been supported 

 through the liberality of Maj. A.lex. Henry Davis of Syra- 

 cuse, and the hope has been entertained that the praisewor- 

 thy initiative of Maj. Davis would lead, in one way or other, 

 to the continued maintenance of an American table. The 

 matter was brought before the American Association for the 

 Advancement of Science, at its recent session in Washing- 

 ton, by Dr. Stiles, and the association responded to the ap- 

 peal by offering to contribute $100 towards the subscription. 

 This leaves $400 to be obtained elsewhere. It is a pity that 

 the American Association could not, as the British Associa- 

 tion does, take a whole table instead of one-fifth of a table. 

 Possibly at the next session the association may be able to 

 increase its offer to the full subscription, and thus one table 

 be secured, so that the American student who goes to Naples 

 for biological study will not have to feel the long-standing 

 reproach that his country has done nothing to support the 

 only international biological station in existence. Mean- 

 while the question arises, shall we not try to raise at once 

 the amount required for a table this year? As one of our 

 morphologists desires to spend the winter in embryological 

 research at Naples, and as we have already placed ourselves 

 under repeated obligation to the station, it seems that imme- 

 diate action ought to be taken, and I most heartily approve 

 of the effort of Dr. Stiles to procure by subscription the 

 needed sum. 



The only objection — if such it is worthy to be called — 

 likely to arise is that we have pressing home needs that 

 might be said to claim first attention. But great and urgent 

 as these needs unquestionably are, I see no reason to suppose 

 that we should reach them sooner by neglecting a plain 

 duty to the Naples station. On the contrary, I believe that 

 the national interest which some of us have most at heart is 

 so intimately related to the international interest, that what 

 we accomplish for the one will redound to the good of the 

 other. 



Perhaps a movement in behalf of the Naples station may 

 encounter a little national prejudice, or possibly a narrower 

 feeling that is still more foreign to the catholicity of a scien- 

 tific brotherhood. 



The sentiment to which Dr. Dohrn gave expression in a 

 recent number of Nature deserves to be repeated here. " I 

 think," says Dr. Dohrn, " the time has come when one 

 must raise one's voice most distinctly against the narrowing 

 limits of national prejudice, which nowadays has grown to 

 almost overwhelming and even pernicious importance in 

 many provinces of material, and — I am sorry to say — also 

 moral and intellectual existence. Science at any rate ought 

 to be exempt from that morbid exclusiveness which refuses 

 to act in rational community regardless of political or eth- 

 nographical boundaries." C. O. V/hitman. 



"The Century Dictionary" is at last completed; the .sixth 

 and concluding volume will soon be brought out, the final pages 

 being now on the press. The work contains about 500 more 

 pages and 2,000 more illustrations than were originally promised. 



