s problems of
cell activity, problems of heredity, life problems of many kinds, having
far wider horizons than the mere question as to how a certain fish or
crustacean lives and moves and has its being.

Dr. Dohrn's chief technical associates are all Germans, like their
leader, but, like him also, all gifted with a polyglot mastery of
tongues that has stood them in good stead in their intercourse with the
biologists of many nationalities who came to work at the laboratory. I
must not pause to dwell upon the personnel of the staff in general,
but there is one other member who cannot be overlooked even in the most
casual survey of the work of the institution. One might almost as well
forget Dr. Dohrn himself as to overlook Signor Lo Bianco, chief of the
collecting department. Signor Bianco it is who, having expert knowledge
of the haunts and habits of every manner of marine creature, can direct
his fishermen where to find and how to secure whatever rare specimen any
worker at the laboratory may desire. He it is, too, who, by studying old
methods and inventing new ones, has learned how to preserve the delicate
forms for subsequent study in lifelike ensemble that no one else can
quite equal. Signor Bianco it is, in short, who is the indispensable
right-hand man of the institution in all that pertains to its practical
working outside the range of the microscope. Each night Signor Lo Bianco
directs his band of fishermen as to what particular specimens are most
to be sought after next day to meet the needs of the workers in the
laboratory. Before sunrise each day, weather permitting, the little
scattered fleet of boats is far out on the Bay of Naples; for the
surface collecting, which furnishes a large share of the best material,
can be done only at dawn, as the greater part of the creatures thus
secured sink into the retirement of the depths during the day, coming
to the surface to feed only at night. You are not likely to see the
collecting party start out, therefore, but if you choose you may see
them return about nine or ten o'clock by going to the dock not far
from the laboratory. The boats come in singly at about this hour, their
occupants standing up to row, and pushing forward with the oars, after
the awkward Neapolitan fashion. Many of the fishermen are quaint
enough in appearance; some of them have grown old in the service of the
laboratory. The morning's catch is contained in glass jars placed
in baskets especially