The animals kept in culture at the station include rats, mice, dormice, and other small rodents; kangaroos, hares, turtles, lizards, snakes, frogs, toads, salamanders of various kinds, axolotl, fresh-water fish, native and tropical, meal worm, flesh and fruit flies, praying mantis, and a considerable variety of smaller fresh-water and marine invertebrates.

Literature: Przibram (1903, 1903a, 1908-9).

ROYAL ZOOLOGICAL STATION IN TRIESTE.

(K. K. Zoologische Station in Trieste.)

Passeggio San Andrea 2, Trieste, Austria.

Director, Prof. Dr. Carl I. Cori, (Deutsche Universität, Prag). House address. via Giustinelli 1, Trieste.

Assistant in zoology, Dr. Gustav Stiasny.
Assistant in zoology, Dr. H. Mikoletzky.
Assistant in botany, Dr. Josef Schiller.
Telegraph address, Aquarium, Trieste.

The foundation of the Trieste station was due to the efforts of Prof. Franz Eilhard Schulze, now of the University of Berlin, but in earlier years connected with the University of Gratz. In 1875 the station was opened in a villa, once belonging to the royal Spanish family, located upon the seashore in the suburbs of the city. From 1875 until 1898 Dr. E. Graeffe was in local charge as resident inspector of the station, and from his pen came many publications dealing with the fauna of the Adriatic. At first the station was under the joint directorate of Professors Schulze and Claus, the latter of Vienna. Later Professor Claus became sole director and continued in this relation till 1896, when upon his retirement a curatorium was established in charge of the affairs of the station.

The present board of control consists of Professors Exner, Grobben, Hatschek, Toldt, and Steindachner of Vienna, Cori and Vejdovsky of Prague, v. Graff of Gratz, and Wierzejski of Cracow. Prof. C. I. Cori was appointed in 1898 as director in residence to succeed Professor Claus. With the new arrangement the station took on a new lease of life. A government grant of 26,000 kronen was applied to the improvement and enlargement of the buildings. An aquarium was established in the basement, physiological and chemical laboratories were opened, and the personnel enlarged to include four scientific assistants. The curatorium holds an annual session and reports directly to the minister of education, the station holding the same relation to this ministry as a university. The director reports to the curatorium and has the entire administration of the station in his hands.

The staff of the station consists of the director and three assistants and the personnel of a keeper in charge of the aquaria and the bio

logical supply department, a machinist and engineer, and three collectors.

The receipts of the station in 1909 were 25,100 kronen, derived directly from the State and allotted as follows:

The director's salary is paid by the German University in Prague. No income is derived from the aquarium or from the sale of material. Independent of the station in organization, administration, and budget is the "Society for the Promotion of the Scientific Investigation of the Adriatic." Its work is carried on at the station, whose director, Professor Cori, was a prime mover in the organization of the society. The purpose of this organization is the exploration of the Adriatic and, to this end, it has raised the funds for the construction and equipment of an exploring ship, The Adria, and for the expenses of the exploring expeditions, whose aim is a hydrographic and biological survey of the gulf of Trieste and adjacent waters of the Adriatic.

In the earlier years of its existence the Trieste station was inadequately supported and was concerned chiefly with supplying biological material to Austrian universities and with the instruction of university students. Its increased facilities have enlarged greatly the opportunities it offers for research.

There are twenty-four work places in all in the station, and competent investigators and students are admitted to the privileges of the station without fees or charges except for unusually large quantities of expensive chemicals, reagents, or materials. A circular of information is issued giving the details of the equipment of investigators' tables and the regulations of the station regarding the collection of material, services of the personnel, use of the library, and furnishing of laboratory supplies. Investigators and students furnish their own microscopes and instruments. Used laboratory glassware is furnished at cost. The station is thus free to all who are competent to use its resources. The station is open throughout the entire year from 7 or 8 a. m. to 7 p. m. Applications should be made in advance to the director. During the past ten years from 33 to 92 persons have availed themselves yearly of its facilities.

The Trieste station has an exceptionally important function in furnishing to Austrian high schools and universities living and

preserved marine material for biological instruction and research. By courtesy available material for research is furnished at cost to universities and investigators of all nationalities and sea water and living animals are sent at fixed nominal prices to private parties for aquaria for the purpose of extending public interest in natural history. In 1908 nearly 300 shipments of biological material were made, mainly to educational institutions.

The exceptionally fine opportunities at Trieste for the use of living material in instruction are utilized in vacation courses of five weeks' duration offered to university students twice yearly, in March-April and September-October. The courses are given by the staff of the station and are of a general character, covering the anatomy, development, and biology of marine animals and plants. The botanical courses are attended by about 10 and the zoological by about 20 students each session. The courses are free and a stipend of 1,600 crowns is available for students (90 to 180 kronen each) in attend

ance.

The investigations carried on at the station have been varied in character and lie in all fields of marine biology. Those of a morphological and systematic character have appeared in the main in the "Arbeiten aus dem zoologisch-zootomischen Institut der Universität von Wien und der zoologischen Station in Trieste. Bd. 1-17 (1878-1908)." With the establishment of the "Verein zur Förderung der naturwissenschaftlichen Erforschung der Adria" in 1903 the activities of the station have been coordinated and directed toward a systematic survey of the Gulf of Trieste along biological and hydrographical lines. (See Cori, 1908.) These investigations are conducted in a carefully located system of stations at four seasons in the year. They include an orderly examination of temperatures at different levels, determinations of specific gravities, transparency of the water, and current measurements, as well as the usual meteorological records. Accompanying this determination of the physical factors of the environment is a systematic examination of the plankton and the shore and bottom fauna. The work is thus essentially a carefully planned biological survey along the lines established in the investigations of the International Commission for the Investigation of the Sea, but applied in this case to a small area. Administrative reports on the progress of this work of the Trieste station appear in the "Jahresberichte" (1-5, 1904-1909) of the Verein, and the results of the survey will shortly appear in a projected quarto series.

The Trieste station is not directly affiliated with the royal or local fisheries administration and is not a fisheries research station, though it receives through the Verein some funds from the budgets of several ministries for the prosecution of its biological survey and includes fisheries problems in its programme of exploration.