This entire collection of halls, constituting the scientific portion of the laboratory, occupies the ground floor. The first and second stories are occupied by sleeping apartments, fourteen in number. These, without being luxurious, are sufficiently comfortable, and offer the great advantage that they are very near the work rooms, thus permitting of observing, at leisure, and at any hour of the day or night, the animals under study.
Everything is absolutely free at the laboratory. The work rooms, instruments, reagents, boats, dwelling apartments, etc., are put at the disposal of all with an equal liberality; and this absence of distinction between rich or poor, Frenchmen or foreigners, is the source of a charming cordiality and good will among the workers.
Shall we speak, too, of the richness of the Roscoff fauna? This has become proverbial among zoologists, as can be attested by the 265 of them who have worked at the laboratory. The very numerous and remarkable memoirs that have been prepared here are to be found recorded in the fourteen volumes of the Archives de Zoologie Experimentale founded by Mr. Lacaze Duthiers.
It only remains to express our hope that the aquarium may be soon finished; but before this is done it will be necessary to get possession of that unfortunate little road. After this final victory, Mr. Duthiers in his turn will be able, amid his pupils, to enjoy all those advantages of his work which he has until now offered to others, but from which he himself has gained no benefit.—La Nature.
THE MURÆNÆ AT THE BERLIN AQUARIUM.
Of all fish, eels are probably the most interesting, as the least is known of them. Electricians are now examining the animal source of electricity in the electric eel (Gymnotus electricus); zoologists are still searching for the solution of the problem of the generation of eels, of which no more is known than that the young eels are not born alive; and numerous fishing societies are now studying the important question of raising eels in ponds, lakes, etc., that are not connected with the sea.
THE MURÆNÆ AT THE BERLIN AQUARIUM.