directed by a German, subsidized (in an excellent manner described below) by most European governments, including even those of Switzerland, Hungary, Holland, Belgium and Spain, the members of the staff and the naturalists at work in the institution may be of any nation and usually are of many; and at any hour of the day at least the four languages, French, German, English and Italian, may be heard among the busy groups in the laboratory and the library.
But the Naples Zoological Station is not wholly for the scientific man—in fact many visitors to Naples do not know that science has anything to do with it. The more public department of the institution, the celebrated 'Acquario,' is one of the sights of Naples and is well known to and highly appreciated by the more intelligent of the tourists you meet at the hotels. The whole institution is usually known to the English-speaking tourist as 'The Aquarium,' and few, even of those who visit and enjoy it, seem to know or wonder anything about the remainder of the great white edifice into the ground floor alone of which they are allowed to penetrate.
The zoological station of Naples in its present condition (it was once smaller, and will probably some day soon be larger) consists of two great, white, flat-topped buildings of imposing appearance, connected by a central yard and large iron galleries, placed on the Chiaja in the Villa Nazionale, the beautiful public garden which occupies that part of the shore of the wonderful Bay of Naples. Surrounded by palms, cactus, aloes, with groups of statuary, fountains and minor temples, looking out upon the incomparable panorama from Vesuvius by Sorrento and Capri to Procida and Ischia, there is probably no finer situation in the world than that occupied by what is unquestionably the most important of zoological institutions.
As to this importance, no university laboratory approaches it. There is no other laboratory where the work-places are occupied by some forty or fifty doctors and professors and investigators of established reputation from all parts of Europe and America, who have come there to do original work, attracted by the fame of the institution and its director; no laboratory where forty such workers can be kept supplied with abundance of fresh material for their researches (of the most diverse description) brought from the sea at least twice a day: no laboratory where there are such excellent facilities for work and such charming opportunities for scientific intercourse.
The staff of the institution now consists of:
1. Professor Dr. Anton Dohrn, the founder and director.
2. Seven Scientific Assistants—viz. . Dr. Eisig, the administrator of the laboratories; Dr. Paul Mayer, the editor of the publications, Dr. W. Giesbrecht, the assistant editor, and the supervisor of the illustrations; Dr. Gast, also concerned in the publications in addition to other work; Dr. Schcebel, the librarian; Dr. Lo Bianco, the administrator of the fisheries and préparateur;
