INTRODUCTION. 



In April, 1897, the zoologists of the world united in honoring Dr. 

 Anton Dohrn on the completion of the first quarter century of the 

 existence and work of the zoological station in IsTaples.^ This period 

 has seen wonderful advances in all lines of scientific work, and the 

 Naples station has been such a prominent factor in the line of biology 

 that a brief account of it will not be without interest as an introduc- 

 tion to the detailed description of the methods employed there. The 

 city of Naples has peculiar advantages for the location of an aquarium 

 and zoological station, because its bay is remarkably rich in animal 

 life, many semitropical and even tropical forms being found in its 

 waters, and storms driving in many of those which otherwise are to be 

 obtained only in the broad expanses of the Mediterranean Sea. In 

 1870 Dr. Dohrn went there, filled with the idea of establishing an insti- 

 tution partly for the purpose of exhibiting in glass tanks the beautiful 

 and strange forms of animals to be found in the sea, but mainly for the 

 study of these animals under the best conditions possible, not only as 

 to their anatomy and their physiological relations to other animals, 

 but also as to their habits, food, etc. After two years of disheartening 

 delays and hindrances. Dr. Dohrn, who was a man of pecuniary means 

 as well as of great scientific attainments and indomitable energy, suc- 

 ceeded in starting the zoological station which for years has been the 

 principal place in the world for the study of marine animal life, and the 

 influence of which upon the science of zoology has been world-wide and 

 of incalculable value. 



The home of the station is a three-story and attic structure, built of 

 stone and stuccoed, and consisting of two parts separated by a court- 

 yard but communicating overhead by means of bridges. The ground 

 floor of the larger part of the building is devoted to the aquarium, the 

 second, third, and attic floors to offices, the library, laboratories, and 



1 For brief accounts of tlie Naples station, published in this country, reference 

 may be made to — 



The Marine Biological Stations of Europe, by Bashford Dean; Biological lectures 

 delivered at the Marine Biological Laboratory of Woods Hole in the summer season 

 of 1893, Tenth lecture, p. 224. Also, Smithsonian Eeport, 1893, p. 513. 



Some unwritten history of the Naples Zoological Station, The American Natural 

 ist, XXXI, 1897, p. 960. This is a report of an address delivered by Dr. Anton Dohrn 

 at the Woods Hole station in August, 1897. 



The Zoological Station at Naples, by E. O. Hovey, Scientific American, LXXVIII, 

 May, 1898, p. 314. 



An excellent and very complete popular account of the station and its history 

 appeared in the four numbers of " Die Kolnische Zeitung" for March 28 and April 4, 

 11, and 14, 1897. 

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