Naples, Italy

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OVERVIEW

The Naples Zoological Station were founded in March 1872 by the German zoologist Anton Dohrn, born in Stettin, in Pomerania, now part of Poland. In summer 1862 Dohrn met Ernst Haeckel who introduced him to the theories of evolution by natural selection of Charles Darwin. He decided to devote his life to collecting facts and ideas in support of Darwinism. The possibility to use marine organisms for studies of systematic, physiology and morphology led him to create an Institute on the shores of the sea in Naples. The new ‘Stazione’ offered biologists the possibility to find a work table ready, with a laboratory, services for collecting marine species, chemicals, magazines and books. The research fields were not limited to marine biology, but covered the entire spectrum of specialties, from taxonomy, to comparative anatomy, physiology, biochemistry and pharmacology. In the last decades of the 19th century and up until the First World War, the ZSN was considered a research center of international level, a meeting place and a place of collaboration between biologists of all specialties. Numerous laboratory devices, from the microtome to microscopes were created or tested at the SZN, together with efficient techniques for the preparation of experimental materials.