960 The American Naturalist. [November, 
attractions doubtless were to blame for the frequently slim 
attendance at the meetings. 
The close of the session was marked by the departure of a 
large proportion of the members for Moscow, the starting 
point of the three excursions which journeyed by different 
routes toward the Caucasus and the Crimea. Upward of four 
hundred people participated in these excursions which pro- 
mised so many and so varied interests. 
SOME UNWRITTEN HISTORY OF THE NAPLES 
ZOOLOGICAL STATION. 
All American biologists are familiar with the Zoological 
Station at Naples, either through having enjoyed its unrivalled 
facilities or from accounts of it which have been published 
again and again in the journals, both scientific and popular, 
of the two worlds. It is, beyond question, the greatest estab- 
lishment for research in the world. But while it occupies this 
position to-day, and while its history since it first threw its 
doors open to the investigator is a part of the history of biology, 
the station has an unwritten history which is extremely inter- 
esting, especially since it shows, in strongest light, the inde- 
fatigable industry and resourcefulness of its founder and 
director, Dr. Anton Dohrn, in overcoming obstacles of every 
sort, many of which would have discouraged a man of less 
persistence. On the evening of August 10, 1897, Dr. Dohrn 
told the students at the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods 
Holl, some of the difficulties which he encountered before the 
station was ready forstudents. His talk is summarized in the 
following account, his own words being used in some cases. 
After apologies for possible linguistic mistakes due to the 
use of a foreign tongue and for the prominence of himself in 
what he had to say, Dr. Dohrn continued by asking his audi- 
ence to imagine a young privat-docent of the University of 
Jena, with rather more money than he well knew how to 
spend; with more time than he knew how to use, but with a 
