logy. Most of the tables here are leased
in perpetuity, for a fixed sum per annum, by various public or private
institutions of different countries. Thus, for example, America has the
right of use of several tables, the Smithsonian Institution leasing one,
Columbia University another, a woman's league a third, and so on. Any
American desiring to work at Naples should make application to one of
these various sources, stating the exact time when he would like to
go, and if there be a vacancy for that time the properly accredited
applicant is almost sure to receive the privilege he asks for. Failing
in this, however, there is still a court of last appeal in Dr. Dohrn
himself, who may have a few unoccupied tables at his disposal, and who
will surely extend the courtesy of their occupancy, for a reasonable
period, to any proper applicant, come he whence he may.

Thus it chances that one finds men of all nations working in the Naples
laboratory--biologists from all over Europe, including Russia, from
America, from Australia, from Japan. One finds women also, but these,
I believe, are usually from America. Biologists who at home are at the
head of fully equipped laboratories come here to profit by the wealth
of material, as well as to keep an eye upon the newest methods of their
craft, and to gain the inspiration of contact with other workers in
allied fields. Many of the German university teachers, for example, make
regular pilgrimages to Naples during their vacations, and more than one
of them have made the original investigations here that have given them
an international reputation.

As to the exact methods of study employed by the individual workers
here, little need be said. In this regard, as in regard to instrumental
equipment, one biological laboratory is necessarily much like another,
and the general conditions of original scientific experiment are pretty
much the same everywhere. What is needed is, first, an appreciation of
the logical bearings of the problem to be solved; and, secondly, the
skill and patience to carry out long lines of experiments, many of which
necessarily lead to no tangible result. The selection of material for
the experiments planned, the watching and cultivating of the living
forms in the laboratory tanks, the cutting of numberless filmy sections
for microscopical examination--these things, variously modified for each
case, make up the work of the laboratory student of general biology.
And ju