Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 11.djvu/719

LABORATORY. of the lower animals; and so in France and on the shores of the Mediterranean did H. Milne-Edwards and De Quatrefages, and Gosse on the English coast. We owe, however, to Louis Agassiz the idea of the foundation of the modern seaside or marine laboratory, which has resulted in the establishment of the great zoölogical station at Naples, those of France and other countries. Agassiz and his students had for many years dredged and collected along the coast of New England, and had spent several winters at Charleston, S. C., to study the marine fauna. In 1873, aided financially by a generous friend of science, he founded the Anderson School of Natural History at Penikese, an island situated at the mouth of Buzzard's Bay. Though, owing to Agassiz's death, it flourished only two years, its work was most important in itself, and because it led to the formation of similar laboratories. It led to the foundation of the Chesapeake Zoölogical Laboratory of the Johns Hopkins University, under the direction of Prof. W. K. Brooks, which was succeeded by temporary laboratories at Beaufort, N. C., and the Bahamas; also to the summer school which was maintained at Annisquam for several years by the late Professor A. Hyatt, and to a summer school carried on by the Peabody Academy of Science at Salem, Mass., in 1876-81, and to others, such as the summer school held under the auspices of the Brooklyn Institute at Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island; the Hopkins Seaside Laboratory of the Leland Stanford, Junior, University, in California; and the Tufts College Laboratory at Harpswell, Maine, under the direction of Professor J. S. Kingsley, and that at Beaufort, N. C., connected with Columbia University. Mr. A. Agassiz has for many years maintained a well-appointed private laboratory at Newport, where a number of investigators have worked through the summer months.

Led by Louis Agassiz's example. Dr. Anton Dohrn in 1872 began to build, and in the following year opened, a costly zoölogical station at Naples, where gather zoölogists of different countries, whose researches, carried on under the most favorable auspices, have had a manifest influence on systematic, and more especially emb r y r ological and morphological, studies. This is a permanent institution established in a handsome structure built for the purpose near the sea, with a director and staff of assistants, and open to investigators throughout the year. Tables are offered to investigators of different countries, the expenses or rent being paid in some cases by the British, American, and other associations, universities, and other institutions. The basement is occupied by a series of large, well-stocked aquaria, and is open to the public. There are a large library, separate workrooms for investigators, steamers for dredging, collection, and preparation, while the institution issues several publications of importance to zoölogists.

This great establishment has been the parent or forerunner of similar laboratories. The late distinguished French zoölogist Baron H. Laeaze-Duthiers founded and built at his own expense two well-equipped seaside laboratories, one at Roscoff, in Northwestern France, and the other on the Mediterranean, near the Spanish line, at Banyuls-sur-Mer. These have been utilized not only by French, Swiss, American, and English investigators, but by a large number of French

students of the Sorbonne and the Collège de France. There is also a laboratory at Concarneau, under the auspices of the Collège de France, and still another at Areachon, maintained by the University of Bordeaux. The city of Paris supports a Laboratoire d'évolution des êtres organisés, 3 Rue d'Ulm, directed by Prof. A. Giard, who has a private laboratory at Wimpereau, near Calais. These were followed by the Plymouth Laboratory, on the English Channel, at which work a small number of investigators, while in the summer season classes from Oxford, Cambridge, and Eton study under an instructor, one of the officers in charge. Other smaller seaside laboratories have been established by Professor Herdman near Liverpool, at Millport; one at Port Erin, on the Isle of Man; one near Bristol; another near Aberdeen, on the North Sea coast; and one near Dublin, on the Irish coast. These are associated together, and controlled by the ‘Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom,’ and in part are supported by grants from the British Association, the Royal Society, etc. The Germans largely patronize the Naples station, but have a small one at Helgoland, while the university at Vienna sustains a well-appointed one at Triest. The Russians have one at Sebastopol, and also at Ville Franche, on the Mediterranean; the Dutch on the coast of Holland; the Danes on their coast; while the University of Tokio maintains one on the Japanese coast.

Floating marine laboratories, as they may be called (i.e. those on shipboard), were established on the British exploring ship Challenger during her five years' voyage around the world, and fully equipped laboratories have been furnished on the various exploring oceanic expeditions, including the five recently sent out to the Antarctic seas by the German, Swedish, English, and Dutch governments.

The laboratories in connection with the fisheries commissions of the United States, Germany, Norway, and Great Britain have been productive of excellent results, both scientific and practical. Early in the seventies of the nineteenth century, Professor S. F. Baird, the founder of the United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries, and its first commissioner, was wont to establish at his summer headquarters, in different seasons, at various points along the coast of New England, from Woods Hole to Harpswell, Maine, temporary laboratories, at which students were hospitably entertained. This led to the permanent establishment of two institutions at Woods Hole. The Woods Hole Laboratory has exerted much influence. To this school large numbers of investigators and college students have flocked, and it has been a most important means of training science teachers. The laboratory of the United States Fish Commission at Woods Hole is a permanent institution, open winter and summer to experts. It is well equipped, and frequented by a large number of investigators and advanced students. Its official organs are the reports and bulletins of the United States Fisheries Commission, and the entire plant is probably the most elaborate and extensive in the world. The marine laboratory established in 1902 at Beaufort, N. C., by the United States Fish Commission is still larger, and promises to be the leading one in this country. The floating laboratory of the Rhode Island