The Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn is a

research institute A research institute, research centre, research center or research organization, is an establishment founded for doing research. Research institutes may specialize in basic research or may be oriented to applied research. Although the term often i ...

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adm ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

, devoted to basic research in biology. Research is largely interdisciplinary involving the fields of

evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...

biochemistry Biochemistry or biological chemistry is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology and ...

molecular biology Molecular biology is the branch of biology that seeks to understand the molecular basis of biological activity in and between cells, including biomolecular synthesis, modification, mechanisms, and interactions. The study of chemical and phys ...

, neurobiology,

cell biology Cell biology (also cellular biology or cytology) is a branch of biology that studies the structure, function, and behavior of cells. All living organisms are made of cells. A cell is the basic unit of life that is responsible for the living an ...

, biological oceanography, marine botany, molecular plant biology,

benthic The benthic zone is the ecological region at the lowest level of a body of water such as an ocean, lake, or stream, including the sediment surface and some sub-surface layers. The name comes from ancient Greek, βένθος (bénthos), meaning " ...

ecology, and

ecophysiology Ecophysiology (from Greek , ''oikos'', "house(hold)"; , ''physis'', "nature, origin"; and , '' -logia''), environmental physiology or physiological ecology is a biological discipline that studies the response of an organism's physiology to enviro ...

. Founded in 1872 as a private concern by

Anton Dohrn Felix Anton Dohrn FRS FRSE (29 December 1840 – 26 September 1909) was a prominent German Darwinist and the founder and first director of the first zoological research station in the world, the Stazione Zoologica in Naples, Italy. He worked ...

, in 1982 the Stazione Zoologica came under the supervision and control of the Ministero dell'Università e della Ricerca Scientifica e Tecnologica (Ministry of Universities and Scientific and Technological Research) as a National Institute.

History

The idea

Dohrn's idea was to establish an international scientific community provided with laboratory space, equipment, research material and a library. This was supported and funded by the German Government,

Thomas Henry Huxley Thomas Henry Huxley (4 May 1825 – 29 June 1895) was an English biologist and anthropologist specialising in comparative anatomy. He has become known as "Darwin's Bulldog" for his advocacy of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. The stori ...

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended ...

, Francis Balfour and

Charles Lyell Sir Charles Lyell, 1st Baronet, (14 November 1797 – 22 February 1875) was a Scottish geologist who demonstrated the power of known natural causes in explaining the earth's history. He is best known as the author of ''Principles of Geolo ...

among others. Dohrn provided a substantial sum himself. Running costs were paid from income derived from the bench system, the sale of scientific journals and specimens and the income from the public aquarium. This system was an important innovations in management of research and it worked. When Anton Dohrn died in 1909 more than 2,200 scientists from Europe and the United States had worked at Stazione Zoologica and more than 50 tables-per-year had been rented out. ''"Report of the Committee, consisting of Dr. Anton Dohrn, Professor Rolleston and Mr. P. L. Sclater, appointed for the purpose of promoting the Foundation of Zoological Stations in different parts of the World:—Reporter, Dr. Dohrn ena"-"The Committee beg to report that since the last Meeting of the British Association at Liverpool steps have been taken by Dr. Dohrn to secure the moral assistance of some other scientific bodies, and that the Academy of Belgium has passed a vote acknowledging the great value of the proposed Observatories. Besides this, the Government at Berlin has given instruction to the German Embassy at Florence and to the General Consul at Naples to do everything to secure success to Dr. Dohrn's enterprise. Next October the building at Naples will be commenced under the personal superintendence of Dr. Dohrn, who will be accompanied by the assistant architect of the Berlin Aquarium. The contractors agree to finish the building in one year, so that in January 1873 the Aquarium in Naples may be expected to be in working order."''

British Association for the Advancement of Science The British Science Association (BSA) is a charity and learned society founded in 1831 to aid in the promotion and development of science. Until 2009 it was known as the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BA). The current Chi ...

Report on the 1871 Meeting in Edinburgh

The building

The oldest building of the zoological station was opened in 1874. A second building connected to the western end of the first by bridges was added in 1886 and a third was built in 1906 for the new science of comparative physiology. In 1910 the 1874 building was occupied by the public aquarium and the library only, the department for collecting and preserving organisms as well as the individual laboratories for zoologists having been relocated in the 1886 addition.

People

The first assistants were zoologists Nicolaus Kleinenberg and Hugo Eisig and one of the Preparators was Salvatore Lobianco (Lo Bianco) (1860–1910), who wrote ''The Methods Employed at the Naples Zoological Station for the Preservation of Marine Animals''. Others were Dr. Brandt (librarian); Dr. Lang; Dr. Giesbrecht; Petersen (engineer). By 1910 the permanent staff were Professor Dr. Paul Mayer and Dr. Gross, morphology; Dr. Burian, comparative physiology; Dr. Henze, chemistry; Dr. Gast, the museum; Hermann Linden, secretary; Sig. Santorelli, Preparator. Zoologists and morphologists were the first guests of the new Institute. Included were Heinrich Wilhelm Gottfried von Waldeyer-Hartz, Francis Balfour, Ray Lankester, August Weismann,

Giovanni Battista Grassi Giovanni Battista Grassi (27 March 1854 – 4 May 1925) was an Italian physician and zoologist, best known for his pioneering works on parasitology, especially on malariology. He was Professor of Comparative Zoology at the University of Catania ...

, Antonio della Valle, Oskar Schmidt,

Ambrosius Hubrecht Ambrosius Arnold Willem Hubrecht (2 March 1853, in Rotterdam – 21 March 1915, in Utrecht) was a Dutch zoologist. Hubrecht studied zoology at Utrecht University with Harting and Donders, for periods joining Selenka in Leiden and later Er ...

(Professor of Utrecht University, an embryologist). In 1897 Ida Henrietta Hyde was invited to occupy a table at the institute. She went on to fund raise to help establish the American Women's Table at the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn. This table was subsequently held by American women zoologists such as Emily Ray Gregory.

Publications

The three publications issued by the Station were:- ''Mittheilungen der Zoologischen Station in Neapel'', ''Zoologischer Jahresbericht'' a reference journal famous for its rapid publication and accuracy and ''Fauna und Flora des Golfes von Neapel'' an inventory of the biota of Mediterranean (in 1876 Anton Dohrn added a section of Botany), Image:ZoologischerJahresbericht1911.jpg, ''Zoologischer Jahresbericht'' 1911 Image:CefalopodiViventinelGolfodiNapoliTav3.jpg, ''Plate from Cefalopodi Viventi nel Golfo di Napoli'' Fauna und Flora des Golfes von Neapel Image:MittheilungenderZoologischenStationinNeapel1879.jpg, ''Mittheilungen der Zoologischen Station in Neapel''1879 Image:LeAttinieMonografiadelAngeloAndresTaf2.jpg, Plate from ''Le Attinie Monografia del Angelo Andres'' Fauna und Flora des Golfes von Neapel

Library

had advised Dohrn that establishing a library would be unwise (Groeben, 1982, p. 29). Dohrn argued that availability of all the major published sources was essential. He gave his own books and scientific journals to the Station and persuaded publishers and scientists to donate their publications. The Naples Station's biological reference collection is still unrivalled in Europe today. The first librarian was Emil Schoebel. Image:PSM V77 D226 View of the library facing east.png, View of the library facing east Image:PSM V77 D227 View of the library facing west.png, View of the library facing east Image:SZNFrescoRoom (2).jpg, Corner with frescos

Equipment

The station maintained a high level of technical services. Ernst Abbe (1840–1905) of the

Zeiss Zeiss or Zeiß may refer to: People *Carl Zeiss (1816–1888), German optician and entrepreneur *Emil Zeiß (1833–1910), German Protestant minister and painter Companies *Carl Zeiss AG, German manufacturer of optics, industrial measurem ...

factory, a close friend, supplied sets of Zeiss instruments at low prices, thus bringing Zeiss equipment, sometimes improved, to the attention of the international scientific community. Assistants and guests collaborated in improving section-cutting and staining. For collecting there were several manned boats, including the steamers "Johannes Muller" and "Francis Balfour". An engineer and assisting machinists maintained the aquarium and a trained mechanic made instruments for experimental investigations. Image:SZNDohrnwithZeissMicroscope 1889.jpg, Anton Dohrn with a Zeiss microscope Image:Microscope Zeiss 1879.jpg, Microscope made by Zeiss, Jena in 1879 Image:SZNJohannesMullerFrankBalfour.jpg, the ''Johannes Muller'' and the ''Frank Balfour'' Image:Britannica Dredge and Dredging 14.jpg, Naturalist's dredge Image:Microtome1905.JPG, Mikrotom made by von C. Reichert, Wien

The aquarium

The aquarium was constructed by William Alford Lloydbr>
Dohrn had met Lloyd in 1866 in Tierpark Hagenbeck, Hamburg. Image:PSM V77 D221 Palm like ringed worms.png, 1910 Image:VascaAntonDohrnNaples.jpg, Today

Culture

Anton Dohrn followed

Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as tr ...

in considering arts and science inseparable. He was devoted to music and in 1873 employed

Hans von Marées Hans von Marées (24 December 1837 – 5 June 1887) was a German painter. Initially specialising in portraiture he later turned to mythological subjects. He spent the last years of his life in Italy. Life Marées was born into a banking family ...

(1837–1887) and Adolf von Hildebrand to enhance Stazione Zoologica with art works. Image:Marée,_Hans_von_(1837-1887)_-_La_barca_2.jpg, Image:Hans von Marées 002.jpg, Pescatori

Later history

Anton Dohrn's son Reinhard Dohrn (1880–1962) continued his father's work from 1909. Peter Dohrn (1917–2007) acted as director between 1954 and 1967. From 1967 to 1976 SZN was led by a Commissario Straordinario. In 1976 following the appointment of Alberto Monroy, an embryologist, as Director a radical reorganisation began. SZN was divided into five parts: Biological Oceanography, Benthic Ecology (at the Villa Dohrn in Ischia), Biochemistry, Cell and Developmental Biology and Neurobiology and. In 1982 SZN became an "Ente pubblico di ricerca (National Research Institute) under the directorship of Antonio Miralto. In 1987 Gaetano Salvatore, dean of the Medical School of Università Federico II in Napoli, was appointed president of the Stazione Zoologica. After his death in 1997, Professor Giorgio Bernardi was appointed as president. He launched the study of

molecular evolution Molecular evolution is the process of change in the sequence composition of cellular molecules such as DNA, RNA, and proteins across generations. The field of molecular evolution uses principles of evolutionary biology and population genet ...

"at the institutional level" completing Dohrn's vision.

People associated with SZN

* Wilhelm Giesbrecht * René-Édouard Claparède * Heinrich Otto Wilhelm Bürger * George Stuart Carter

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This soci ...

Francis Gerald William Knowles Sir Francis Gerald William Knowles, 6th baronet (9 March 1915 – 13 July 1974) was a distinguished British research biologist and zoologist, a Fellow of the Royal Society, who held the chair of anatomy at King's College London where he was D ...

FRS 1937-38 and intermittently thereafter to 1974 * Richard Parkinson *

Hans Adolf Eduard Driesch Hans Adolf Eduard Driesch (28 October 1867 – 17 April 1941) was a German biologist and philosopher from Bad Kreuznach. He is most noted for his early experimental work in embryology and for his neo- vitalist philosophy of entelechy. He has als ...

Arthur Henry Reginald Buller Arthur Henry Reginald Buller, (19 August 1874 – 3 July 1944) was a British-Canadian mycologist. He is mainly known as a researcher of fungi and wheat rust. Academic career Born in Moseley, Birmingham, England, he was educated at Queen's C ...

Researcher, 1900-1901 on the fertilization of sea urchin eggs *

Carl Vogt August Christoph Carl Vogt (; 5 July 18175 May 1895) was a German scientist, philosopher, popularizer of science, and politician who emigrated to Switzerland. Vogt published a number of notable works on zoology, geology and physiology. All h ...

(1879 and 1884) * Emil du Bois-Reymond (1878) * Gaetano Chierchia Naturalist on the Italian research ship ''Vettor Pisani''. *

James Dewey Watson James Dewey Watson (born April 6, 1928) is an American molecular biologist, geneticist, and zoologist. In 1953, he co-authored with Francis Crick the academic paper proposing the double helix structure of the DNA molecule. Watson, Crick ...

Angelo Andres Angelo "Ginobili" Andres (24 March 1851, Tirano –16 July 1934, Milan) was an Italian zoologist. Dr. Angelo Andres studied natural history in Pavia, Leipzig, London and Paris. He became a Professor in Moderna. From 1899–1926 he was director o ...

* Ernst Ehlers *

Charles Otis Whitman Charles Otis Whitman (December 6, 1842 – December 14, 1910) was an American zoologist, who was influential to the founding of classical ethology (study of animal behavior). A dedicated educator who preferred to teach a few research students at ...

Mid-1870s early 1880s with Emily Nunn *

Carl Chun Carl Chun (1 October 1852 – 11 April 1914) was a German marine biologist. Chun was born in Höchst, today a part of Frankfurt, and studied zoology at the University of Leipzig, where from 1878 to 1883 he was privat-docent of zoology and an ...

William Morton Wheeler William Morton Wheeler (March 19, 1865 – April 19, 1937) was an American entomologist, myrmecologist and Harvard professor. Biography Early life and education William Morton Wheeler was born on March 19, 1865, to parents Julius Morton Wheeler ...

Research in Münich, Naples, Liège, 1893-1894 *

Hermon Carey Bumpus Hermon Carey Bumpus (May 5, 1862 – June 21, 1943) was an American biologist, museum director, and the fifth president of Tufts College (later Tufts University). Early life and education Hermon Carey Bumpus was born in Buckfield, Maine in 1 ...

Research, Münich, Naples 1893 * Friedrich Alfred Krupp *

Vladimir Timofeyevich Szewiakow Vladimir Timofeyevich Shevyakov, in Russian Владимир Тимофеевич Шевяков (29 October 1859, St. Petersburg – 18 October 1930, Irkutsk) was a Russian biologist who worked on Protozoa. Shevyakov studied under Konstantin ...

* Jakob von Uexküll *

Albrecht Bethe Albrecht Julius Theodor Bethe (25 April 1872 in Stettin – 19 October 1954 in Frankfurt am Main) was a German physiologist. He was the father of physicist Hans Bethe (1906–2005). He studied at the universities of Freiburg, Munich (under Richard ...

:de:Albrecht Bethe * August Weismann *

Adolf Naef Adolf Naef (1 May 1883 – 11 May 1949) was a Swiss zoologist and palaeontologist who worked on cephalopods and systematics. Although he struggled with academic politics throughout his career and difficult conditions during World War I and II, ...

* Ernest Everett Just * Otto Heinrich Warburg *

Fridtjof Nansen Fridtjof Wedel-Jarlsberg Nansen (; 10 October 186113 May 1930) was a Norwegian polymath and Nobel Peace Prize laureate. He gained prominence at various points in his life as an explorer, scientist, diplomat, and humanitarian. He led the team t ...

* Robert Francis Scharff * Gottlieb von Koch (1849–1914) Professor of Zoology at the Technical School,

Darmstadt Darmstadt () is a city in the state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it the fourth largest city in the state of Hesse ...

. He wrote "Die Gorgoniden des Golfes von Neapel und der angrenzenden Meeresabschnitte..." published in Berlin in 1887 and published on octocorals between 1874 and 1891. *

Theodor Boveri Theodor Heinrich Boveri (12 October 1862 – 15 October 1915) was a German zoologist, comparative anatomist and co-founder of modern cytology. He was notable for the first hypothesis regarding cellular processes that cause cancer, and for desc ...

and

Marcella Boveri Marcella Boveri (née O'Grady; October 7, 1863 – October 24, 1950) was an American biologist. She was married to the German biologist Theodor Boveri (1862–1915). Their daughter Margret Boveri (1900–1975) became one of the best-known post-wa ...

Raphael Weldon Walter Frank Raphael Weldon FRS (15 March 1860 – 13 April 1906), was an English evolutionary biologist and a founder of biometry. He was the joint founding editor of ''Biometrika'', with Francis Galton and Karl Pearson. Family Weldon was th ...

, who visited in summer 1882, working on '' Lacerta muralis'', the common wall lizard, and then later (on his honeymoon) in spring 1883. Pearson's obituary of Weldon (p. 10) reports that ''"At Easter (1884)

Banyuls Banyuls-sur-Mer (; ) is a commune in the Pyrénées-Orientales department in southern France. It was first settled by Greeks starting in 400 BCE. Geography Location Banyuls-sur-Mer is located in the canton of La Côte Vermeille and in the ar ...

was visited, and the summer vacation found Weldon in Naples again for the three months preparing his fellowship dissertation (for Cambridge). In Naples the cholera had broken out, and the Weldons experienced not only difficulty in getting the precious dissertation back to England, but in returning themselves."'' * Francis Maitland Balfour (See Letter 9289 —

to F.A. Dohrn 13 February 1874: "F. M. Balfour to visit Naples"

* Jerry Lettvin, Jerome Y. Lettvin. Researched octopus visual neurophysiology in the summers of 1959, 1961, and 1963. * John Zachary Young. Neurophysiologist, honored with Stazione Zoologica gold medal. * Ida Henrietta Hyde *

George Wilton Field George Wilton Field, Ph. D. (1863 – 1938) was an American biologist, born at North Bridgewater, Massachusetts. Working primarily in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, Field was a pioneer in the field of shellfish aquaculture and water pollutio ...

(1892–1893) *

Thomas Hunt Morgan Thomas Hunt Morgan (September 25, 1866 – December 4, 1945) was an American evolutionary biologist, geneticist, embryologist, and science author who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1933 for discoveries elucidating the role that ...

(1894) * David Fairchild (1894) * Raffaello Bellini * Grigore Antipa *

Nino Salvatore Gaetano "Nino" Salvatore (28 July 1932 – 25 June 1997) was an Italian endocrinologist known for his extensive research on the thyroid gland. He spent the majority of his career in Naples' Stazione Zoologica and the University of Naples Federico II ...

Rachel Leech Rachel Leech (3 June 1936 – 23 December 2017) was Professor of Plant Sciences at the University of York, UK. Her research focused on chloroplasts and she was a leader in the field of understanding their development and function. She was also on ...

(1959-60) studying chloroplast cytochromes

References

External links

Homepage of the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn
Includes history of the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn
Zoological Collection Database
Impressive. Images of specimens and archival documents. Includes a history. * *

Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition The ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' Eleventh Edition (1910–1911) is a 29-volume reference work, an edition of the '' Encyclopædia Britannica''. It was developed during the encyclopaedia's transition from a British to an American publication. S ...

account at

Project Gutenberg Project Gutenberg (PG) is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, as well as to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks." It was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the oldest digital libr ...

* Stazione zoologica di Napoli ''Guide to the aquarium of the Zoological Station at Naples'' Leipzig :Breitkopf & Härtel, 1913. 8th edition

Dohrn family
Istituto Mazzini Napoli
BHL
Guide to the aquarium of the Zoological station at Naples. Leipzig :Breitkopf & Härtel,1896.
The Zoological Station at Naples

Popular Science Monthly ''Popular Science'' (also known as ''PopSci'') is an American digital magazine carrying popular science content, which refers to articles for the general reader on science and technology subjects. ''Popular Science'' has won over 58 awards, incl ...

Nature 1872
Letter to Nature Titled "The Foundation of Zoological Stations Full text. {{Authority control Research institutes in Italy Biological stations Marine botany 1872 establishments in Italy Museums in Naples Education in Naples Research institutes established in 1872 1872 in biology