The celebrated Roscoff zoological station was founded in 1872, and has
therefore been in existence for thirteen years; but it may be said that
it has changed appearance thirteen times. Those who, for the last six or
seven years, have gone thither to work with diligence find at every
recurring season some improvement or new progress.
A rented house, a small shed in a yard, little or no apparatus, and four
work rooms--such was the debut of the station; and modest it was, as may
be seen. Later on, the introduction of a temporary aquarium, which,
without being ornamental, was not lacking in convenience, sufficed for
making some fine discoveries regarding numerous animals.
A small boat served for supplying necessaries to the few workers who were
then visiting Roscoff; but as the number of these kept gradually
increasing, it became necessary to think of enlarging the station, and
the purchase of a piece of property was decided upon. Since then, Mr.
Lacaze Duthiers has done nothing but develop and transform this first
acquisition. A large house, which was fitted up in 1879, formed the new
laboratory. This was built in a large garden situated nearly at the edge
of the sea. We say _nearly_, as the garden in fact was separated from the
sea by a small road. The plan in Fig. 1 shows that this road makes an
angle; but formerly it was straight, and passed over the terrace which
now borders upon the fish pond. How many measures, voyages, and endless
discussions, and how much paper and ink, it has taken to get this road
ceded to the laboratory! Finally, after months of contest, victory
rewarded Mr. Duthiers's tenacity, and he was then able to begin the
construction of a pond and aquarium. All this was not done at once.
[Illustration: FIG. 1.--PLAN OF THE ROSCOFF LABORATORY.]
Another capital improvement was made in 1882. The public school adjoining
the establishment was ceded to it, the separating walls fell, the school
became a laboratory, the class rooms were replaced by halls for research,
and now no trace of the former separation can be seen--so uniform a whole
does the laboratory form. No one knows what patience it required to form,
piecemeal as it were, so vast an establishment, and one whose every part
so completely harmonizes.
During the same year a park, one acre in area, was laid out on the beach
opposite the laboratory. This is daily covered by the sea, and forms a
preserve in which animals multiply, and which, during the inclement
season, when distant excursions are impossible, permits of satisfying the
demands that come from every quarter. All, however, is not finished. Last
year a small piece of land was purchased for the installation of
hydraulic apparatus for filling the aquarium. This acquisition was
likewise indispensable, in order to prevent buildings from being erected
upon the land and shutting off the light from the work rooms opposite.
Alas, here we find our enemy again--the little road! Negotiations have
been going on for eighteen months with the common council, and, what is
worse, with the army engineers, concerning the cession of this wretched
footpath.
The reader now knows the principal phases of the increases and
improvements through which the Roscoff station has passed. If, with the
plan before his eyes, he will follow us, we will together visit the
various parts of the laboratory. The principal entrance is situated upon
the city square, one of the sides of which is formed by the buildings of
the station. We first enter a large and beautiful garden ornamented with
large trees and magnificent flowers which the mild and damp climate of
Roscoff makes bloom in profusion. We next enter a work room which is
designed for those pupils who, doing no special work, come to Roscoff in
order to study from nature what has been taught them theoretically in the
lecture courses of schools, etc. There is room here for nine pupils, to
each of whom the laboratory offers two tables, with tanks, bowls,
reagents, microscopes, and instruments of all kinds for cabinet study, as
well as for researches upon animals on the beach. Here the pupils are in
presence of each other, and so the explanations given by the laboratory
assistants are taken advantage of by all. At the end of this room, on
turning to the left, we find two large apartments--the library and
museum. Here have been gradually collected together the principal works
concerning the fauna of Roscoff and the English Channel, maps and plans
useful for consultation, numerous memoirs, and a small literary library.
The scientific collection contains the greater portion of the animals
that inhabit the vicinity of Roscoff. To every specimen is affixed a
label giving a host of data concerning the habits, method of capture, and
the various biological conditions special to it. In a few years, when the
data thus accumulated every season by naturalists have been brought
together, we shall have a most valuable collection of facts concerning
the fauna of the coast of France. Two store rooms at the end of these
apartments occupy the center of the laboratory, and are thus more easy of
access from the work rooms, and the objects that each one desires can be
quickly got for him.
[Illustration: FIG. 2.--INTERIOR OF ONE OF THE STALLS FOR STUDY.]
After the store rooms comes what was formerly the class room for boys,
and which has space for three workers, and then the former girls' class
room, which has space for eight more. Let us stop for a moment in this
large room, which is divided up into eight stalls, each of which is put
at the disposal of some naturalist who is making original researches.
Fig. 2 represents one of these, and all the rest are like it. Three
tables are provided, the space between which is occupied by the worker.
Of these, one is reserved for the tanks that contain the animals,
another, placed opposite a window giving a good light, supports the
optical apparatus, and the last is occupied by delicate objects,
drawings, notes, etc., and is, after a manner, the worker's desk. Some
shelving, some pegs, and a small cupboard complete the stall. It is
unnecessary to say that the laboratory furnishes gratuitously to those
who are making researches everything that can be of service to them.
Four of these stalls are situated to the north, with a view of the sea,
and the other four overlook the garden. They are separated from each
other by a simple partition, and all open on a wide central corridor that
leads to the aquarium. Before reaching the latter we find two offices
that face each other, one of them for the lecturer and the other for the
preparator. These rooms, as far as their arrangement is concerned, are
identical with the stalls of the workers. The laboratory, then, is
capable of receiving twenty-three workers at a time, and of offering them
every facility for researches.
[Illustration: FIG. 3.--GENERAL VIEW OF THE ROSCOFF LABORATORY.]
The aquarium is an immense room, 98 ft. in length by 33 in width, glazed
at the two sides. It is at present occupied only by temporary tanks that
are to be replaced before long by twenty large ones of 130 gallons
capacity, and two oval basins of from 650 to 875 gallons capacity,
constructed after the model of the one that is giving so good results at
Banyuls. At the extremity of the aquarium there is a store room
containing trawls, nets of all kinds, and mops, for the capture of
animals. Here too is kept the rigging of the two laboratory boats, the
Dentale and Laura. Above the store room is located the director's work
room.
A wide terrace separates the aquarium from the pond. This latter is 38
yards long by 35 wide. Thanks to a system of sluice valves, it is filled
during high tide, and the water is shut in at low tide, thus permitting
of having a supply of living animals in boxes and baskets until the
resources of the laboratory permit of a more improved arrangement. This
basin is shown in Fig. 3. It is at the north side of the laboratory as
seen from the beach. Here too we see the aquarium, the garden, and a
portion of the shore that serves as a post for the station boats.
We must not, in passing, fail to mention the extreme convenience that the
proximity of the aquarium work room to the pond and sea offers to the
student.
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._
* * * * *