128 
The following letter, dated April 24th, 1879, from Mr. 
Arthur W. Waters, F.G.S., was read : — 
On February the 9th, 1876, I wrote you a letter, which 
was published in the Proceedings of the Literary and Philo- 
sophical Society, giving an account of the Naples Zoological 
Station, and as the Mittheilungen aus der Zoologischen 
Station zu Neapel shows that it has expanded since then 
into a more important establishment, I send a few supple- 
mentary particulars gathered from this first volume. 
Since the date of my last the Station has received a small 
steamer for dredging purposes, partly through the liberality 
of the Berlin Academy, which voted 18,000 marks for the 
purpose, and the Prussian Government 6,000 marks. Dr. 
Dohrn has also made a more satisfactory arrangement with 
the Italian Government, who granted him the lease of the 
land for thirty years, and have now extended the term to 
ninety years. 
The accomodation has been increased so that now, tables 
for 26 naturalists can be furnished, and the staff is very 
materially larger, there being now 25 constantly employed 
about the station. The increase has taken place in all 
departments, though the most material is in the scientific 
staff, which has been doubled. Dr. Berth old has charge 
of the botanical section, and Dr. Paul Mayer has the task of 
seeing after the zoological collections, and some other 
changes and sub divisions have been made, but Dr. H. Eisig 
from whom the naturalists who have already visited the 
Aquarium have received material assistance, still represents 
Dr. Dohrn in the detail control of the entire establishment. 
The addition of the steamer has caused changes among 
the engineers, and necessitated several more boys about the 
place. These boys are much more important than would at 
first thought be supposed, for an intelligent lad soon learns 
to distinguish the animals which the specialists are investi- 
gating, and after a time knows the scientific names of a large 
proportion of the animals brought in., and in fact will soon 
have a wider superficial grasp than most of the naturalists, 
and able to quickly “spot” the animals required. The 
