INTRODUCTION. [4] 



work rooms. The smaller building is used for receiving, preserving, 

 and storing the material brought in from day to day, and for laboratories 

 and study rooms for some of the officials and others. The aquarium 

 proper contains twenty-six tanks having glass fronts and lighted from 

 above in such a manner that, as a person gazes into them, he can readily 

 imagine himself standing on the bottom of the sea with the animals at 

 home about him. There are no open tanks and no light enters the room 

 except that which comes through the water. 



The stocking of the aquarium and the supply of material for the 

 naturalists at work in the station is cared for in a very complete way. 

 The station owns two steam launches, which are used for dredging and 

 other heavy or distant work, and two or more small rowboats, which 

 are kept constantly busy collecting jelly-fish and other surface forms of 

 life which are driven into the harbor from the open sea. Furthermore, 

 all the fishermen in the bay regularly bring to the station all the animals 

 that come up in their nets that are known to be desired. These objects 

 are j)aid for as they are brought in. Every day the. naturalists state 

 what they need for the next day's work, and every evening corresponding 

 orders are given to the crews of the boats belonging to the station. 

 One naturalist may want fifty sea-urchins of a kind, another twenty- 

 five starfish, another a large or small number of jelly-fish or crustaceans 

 or what not, and each finds his wants supplied the next morning, if the 

 weather has been favorable. It is very interesting to observe the pride 

 which the rough fishermen of the bay now take in bringing to the station 

 all rarities and other forms of life which they know to be desired there. 



Although the aquarium is the most popular portion of the Institution 

 and the public sees only that and the preserved animals which are sent 

 out to museums, the chief mission of the station, in the eyes of the 

 director, Dr. Dohrn, and of all other scientists as well, is to provide a 

 place for the investigation of marine life under the best conditions 

 attainable on land, and most of the station building is given up to 

 provisions for this purpose. The regular scientific corps consists of nine 

 men, including the director, each of whom makes a special study of 

 some form of animal life. The average number of naturalists not con- 

 nected with the institution who study there is about forty in each year, 

 though not more than from twenty-five to thirty may be there at one 

 time. Each of these is an independent worker along some particular 

 line of study, no elementary instruction being given by the officers. 

 Each student is provided with a table or desk, drawers, racks, book- 

 shelves, microscope, glassware, alcohol, and other reagents, drawing 

 materials, glass tanks with running and stationary water, and, in fact, 

 with everything needed to carry on his investigations, and with animals 

 to work upon. 



The library is very full on all subjects bearing upon zoology, a 

 specialty being made of periodicals. Furthermore, fully equipped 

 laboratories are provided for the investigation of the chemical and 



