The Zoological Station In Naples

Abstract

THERE are few of those interested in biological studies who are not more or less familiar with the history and character of the great international laboratory on the shore of the Bay of Naples, which has had so profound an influence on the progress of zoology in the last nine years; scarcely a volume belonging to recent zoological literature, British or foreign, can be taken up, but the acknowledgment of indebtedness to the resources of the Naples station comes under the eye; the publications of the station are on the shelves of most scientific libraries; and many accounts of its organisation have appeared from time to time in scientific periodicals and even in the daily press. But the institution is much too interesting a topic of discussion to be easily exhausted; it is constantly developing and exhibiting new stages of existence. There is soon to be added a new department that of comparative physiology, the work of which will be carried on in a separate laboratory; and on the eve of an expansion so considerable, it is natural to reflect on the work the station has already accomplished, its present state of activity, and the probabilities of its future.