Introduction

1There are hundreds of marine laboratories worldwide, most of which serve two missions : research and education. Only five marine laboratories existed prior to 1870 : Ostend, Belgium (1843) ; Concarneau, France (1859) ; Sebastopol, Crimea (1863) ; Arcachon, France (1867) ; and Marseille, France (1869). [1] However, many laboratories were founded starting 1870 (58 between 1870 and 1900) due to similar needs : student training in zoology should include the observation of live animals ; industrial fisheries required new data ; researchers needed live organisms for new questions in embryology and physiology. [2]

2The history of most marine stations created at the end of the 19th century is poorly known, except for the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole and the Zoological Station at Naples. [3] In France, which hosted the largest number of marine stations at the end of the 19th century, the history of their creation has been largely overlooked, even though studies exist on a few stations. [4] In particular, the creation of the Station biologique (Roscoff, Brittany) is still poorly known, although it was founded by Henri de Lacaze-Duthiers (1821-1901), one of the most important French zoologists of the 19th century, who played a key role in the development of marine laboratories in France. [5]

3The present study reconstructs historic events and addresses broader questions, such as : What led Lacaze-Duthiers to create a marine station ? In which context did this creation take place ? Why and when did Lacaze-Duthiers choose Roscoff as a location ? Did the station serve research and education as soon as it was created ? Who visited the station in its early years ? Why did Lacaze-Duthiers name his station the Laboratoire dezoologie expérimentale while most marine stations have always been referred to as marine or zoological stations ?

1821-1853 : From medicine to zoology

4Born on 15 May 1821, Henri de Lacaze-Duthiers was raised in southern France, quite far from the sea. After high-school, he studied medicine in Paris where he also took courses at the Faculté des sciences and the Muséum national d’histoire naturelle. Lacaze-Duthiers graduated from medical school in 1851 but immediately abandoned the idea of becoming a physician. [6] Two years later, he obtained his doctorat ès sciences on the genital apparatus of female insects. [7]

5Between 20 June and 20 August 1853, Lacaze-Duthiers joined his friend Jules Haime (1824-1856), a specialist of corals, for a trip to the Balearic Islands, mostly motivated by his interactions with his professor Milne-Edwards : “This is in the lecture halls of the Sorbonne, by listening to such a Master, that I learnt how to love zoology.” [8] Henri Milne-Edwards (1800-1885) first joined the Muséum national d’histoire naturelle in 1838 where he replaced Jean-Victor Audouin (1797-1841) as professor (titulaire) for the “histoire naturelle des crustacés, des arachnides et des insectes ou des animaux articulés.” Milne-Edwards also was a professor of comparative zoology and physiology at the Faculté des sciences, Paris, where Lacaze-Duthiers replaced him in 1868. [9]

6The book that played a key role in Lacaze-Duthiers’s scientific formation was the Recherches pour servir à l’histoire naturelle du littoral de la France in which Audouin and Milne-Edwards commented on their field trips on the coasts of Normandy and Brittany (France). [10] Audouin and Milne-Edwards made their first trip to the Chausey Islands (Normandy) in 1826. They traveled along with their wives and children who would join them for tidepooling. [11] In the Recherches, they argued that animals should be studied alive, in their natural habitat :

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“The naturalist who explores our coasts is in favorable conditions for interesting research that shall result in important results ; the animals that he meets are different enough from one another to provide him with a great diversity of organizations ; and, because he decides the localities and the circumstances, he can dedicate himself without obstacles to physiological and anatomical work, study behavior, observe everything freely, and multiply his experiments without neglecting any of the necessary precautions to their success.” [12]

8Before Milne-Edwards and Audouin, Georges Cuvier (1769-1832) observed many live invertebrates in Normandy, where he lived from 1788 to 1795. [13] Lacaze-Duthiers regarded Cuvier’s stay in Normandy as “the starting point of modern studies, today so actively followed and made on living things in the biological conditions where animals are found.” [14] Cuvier’s primary concern was to collect fresh specimens for anatomical research. Because Audouin and Milne-Edwards were also interested in behavior and development, Lacaze-Duthiers regarded them as the “initiators of a new method of study” because, “through their studies on field sites, they demonstrated all the interest in the knowledge of marine invertebrates, so different alive from when they are in museums.” [15]

9In 1844, Milne-Edwards explored Sicily with two young followers, Émile Blanchard (1819-1900) and Armand de Quatrefages (1810-1892). Blanchard started working under Audouin as a teenager. Quatrefages moved to Paris two years before Lacaze-Duthiers, in 1840, with already three doctorats (mathematics in 1830, medicine in 1832, and sciences naturelles in 1840). While a freelance writer and illustrator, he studied invertebrates under Milne-Edwards and became titulaire (i.e., professor) of anthropology at the Muséum in 1855. Quatrefages was one of the few French scientists who actively studied marine organisms in the field during the second quarter of the 19th century. His trips included the Chausey Islands (1841), Saint-Vaastla-Hougue (1842, 1849), Bréhat (1843), Biscaye (1847, 1848), Boulogne (1850), and La Rochelle (1852). [16] Lacaze-Duthiers started exploring the seashore approximately when Quatrefages stopped (because of his new responsibilities at the Muséum).

10As a student and young scientist, Lacaze-Duthiers also interacted with other Parisian zoologists : Henri Ducrotay de Blainville (1777-1850), professor of zoology and anatomy at the Faculté des sciences and professor of comparative anatomy at the Muséum ; Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (1805-1861), professor of birds and mammals at the Muséum and who replaced Blainville at the Faculté in 1850. Lacaze-Duthiers defended his thesis before Milne-Edwards and Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire.

1853-1870 : Again to sea !

11In 1853, Lacaze-Duthiers was ready to do some research in the direction drawn by Audouin and Milne-Edwards two decades earlier, i.e., by observing live animals in the field. From 1853 to 1870, Lacaze-Duthiers visited many coastal localities in France (especially Normandy, Brittany, Mediterranean, and Corsica) and abroad (Balearic Islands, Algeria). Those field trips help understand Lacaze-Duthiers’s research goals and how he intended to reach them. In the Balearic Islands, in 1853, Lacaze-Duthiers set up an organization that he kept using in all his field trips and in his laboratory at Roscoff. [17] The next summer, in 1854, Lacaze-Duthiers visited the coasts of Normandy and Brittany for two months, from Caen to Saint-Jacut-de-la-Mer. [18] His laboratory was improvised but efficiently functional :

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“I had a large bedroom on the second floor. As furniture, there were three beds, a few chairs, an immense table ; a good window, well oriented, was giving me a nice light. On the ground floor, the owner had left his laundry room for me to enjoy ; I could spread water profusely without any fear : it was my aquarium. […] I always learned something through my chats with fishermen. They have peculiar thoughts, but based on positive facts, on exact observations. A fisherman saw so much that he might remember much. It is we who must interpret what he says. […] I shall say that I still remember with pleasure the period when, in this most primitive simplicity, I sometimes so joyfully, always so assiduously and fruitfully, without any worry, worked by the real nature, almost outside civilization.” [19]

13In 1854, Lacaze-Duthiers was appointed professor of natural history at the newly-created Faculté des sciences, Lille, which marked the beginning of a long teaching career. [20] In his first lecture, he told his students :

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“Classification is the final goal ; but the classification of dead things buried in museums is over. One needs to see first the anatomy and then the physiology. But one must not see one stage only of the life of animals ; we cannot ban the study of reproduction and metamorphoses. Finally, to accomplish such studies, one needs to see the animals in their own, natural conditions and study their biology.” [21]

15Those ideas continued to grow in Lacaze-Duthiers’s mind and became the core of his motivation for creating a laboratory at Roscoff. In 1855, Lacaze-Duthiers returned to Saint-Jacut. In 1858, he went on sabbatical to Corsica (April to June), and to the Balearic Islands (June to August). It is in Corsica that he participated in his first dredging, off Bonifacio, and discovered what he called the engin des corailleurs, or coral dredge, a wooden cross with nets nailed onto it to catch corals and other benthic animals.

16A series of expeditions on coral fishing in Algeria (summer 1860 to summer 1861, fall 1862, summer 1863) provided him with some material for a superb Histoire naturelle du corail, in which he described the development of hexacorallians and octocorallians for the first time. [22] In Algeria, Lacaze-Duthiers met a local fisherman, Pierre Lanceplaine, who followed him in most of his field trips and participated in the installation of the laboratory at Roscoff. [23] Lacaze-Duthiers then visited Port-en-Bessin (Normandy) and Saint-Quay-Portrieux (Brittany) in 1864, Arcachon (Atlantic coast) and Cette (Mediterranean – changed to “Sète” in 1927) in 1865, and Roscoff in 1868 and 1869.

17In 1863, Lacaze-Duthiers moved to Paris as maître de conférences (tenured assistant professor) of zoology at the École normale supérieure, where his former student Edmond Perrier (1844-1921) replaced him in 1872. In 1865, he became professor at the Muséum (zoology of mollusks, worms, and zoophytes). In 1868, he asked Perrier to join him at the Muséum, as aide-naturaliste, but immediately left to replace Milne-Edwards as professor of comparative zoology and physiology at the Faculté des sciences.

18Between 1853 and 1870, Lacaze-Duthiers published 82 contributions, including several monographs. [24] Most articles were published in the Comptes Rendus […] de l’Académie des sciences or the Annales de sciences naturelles. With the exception of a few articles on insects before 1855, Lacaze-Duthiers specialized in marine organisms, especially cnidarians, mollusks, and tunicates. His writings show his broad interests in anatomy and embryology.

1868 : Debate on descriptive versus experimental zoology

19The main purpose of the Laboratoire de zoologie expérimentale and the Archives de zoologie expérimentale et générale was to help develop research in “experimental zoology.” It was of high importance in Lacaze-Duthiers’s mind and what he meant by “experimental zoology” was explained in the long article opening the first volume of the Archives. [25]

20This article is organized in three parts. In the first part entitled “What zoology must have been primitively” (“Ce qu’a dû être primitivement la zoologie”), Lacaze-Duthiers argued that zoology was originally based on contemplation and description, from primitive human societies up to Linnaeus. This is what he called “pure zoology.” In the second part entitled “What zoology still is for many zoologists” (“Ce qu’est encore la zoologie pour beaucoup de zoologistes”), Lacaze-Duthiers argued that many zoologists were still pure zoologists, describing the anatomical parts only, although he acknowleged that some zoologists (such as Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, Richard Owen, Milne-Edwards, Johannes P. Müller, Pierre-Joseph Van Beneden, Thomas Henry Huxley, Carl Vogt, Quatrefages, Carl Gegenbaur, Rudolf Leuckart, and Ernst Haeckel) had tried to integrate anatomy and embryology. The third and most important part, entitled “What zoology must be and become” (“Ce que doit être et devenir la zoologie”), is a series of comments on a heated debate between Claude Bernard (1813-1878) and Victor Coste (who created the marine laboratory in Concarneau in 1859) at the Académie des sciences, prompted by Bernard’s (1867) Rapport sur les progrès et la marche de la physiologie générale en France. [26] This third part helps understand why Lacaze-Duthiers was so attached to using “zoologie expérimentale” for his new laboratory and new journal.

21Lacaze-Duthiers, Coste, and Bernard all knew each other. In 1868, Bernard joined the Muséum in physiologie générale, and left the professorship of physiologie générale at the Faculté. It also was in 1868 that Lacaze-Duthiers left the Muséum to become professor at the Faculté. In 1868, both Coste and Bernard applied for the position of secrétaire perpétuel (president) of the Physical Sciences (including 36 members divided in six sections) of the Académie des sciences. However, the chemist Jean-Baptiste Dumas received 30 votes, ahead of Coste (23 votes) and Bernard (2 votes). [27] In 1868, Lacaze-Duthiers was not a member of the Académie (which he joined in 1871), but he knew exactly what was happening there.

22Bernard’s Rapport was a call for new resources to support physiology. [28] Zoologists agreed with the need for more researchers and laboratories but disagreed with Bernard’s claims on the higher status of physiology among biological sciences :

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“Today, that physiology is becoming independent from biological sciences, we must, in defining it, separate it clearly from other diverse sciences with which it may have been confused until now. […] We shall demonstrate that physiology is not a science naturelle, but rather an experimental science. […] All sciences naturelles are sciences based on observation, that is, contemplative of nature, which can only lead to predictions. All experimental sciences are explanatory, which go farther than sciences based on observation. […] No doubt all biological sciences share the same trunk, since the living being is their common object of study, but […] experimental sciences [i.e., physiology] constitute a more advanced scientific stage than sciences naturelles.” [29]

24At the Académie des sciences, in 1868, Coste argued against Bernard that sciences based on observation are as explanatory as experimental sciences and that observation and experimentation should not be separated. [30] In response, Bernard argued that the experimental method implied the use of artificial means to “observe phenomena that are normally hidden to us” because an experiment can be defined as “a provoked observation.” [31]

25Lacaze-Duthiers agreed that the experimental method was a guarantee of rigor and progress : “To be experimental : that is what zoology must be from now on.” [32] However, contrary to what Bernard claimed, physiology was not the only biological science using experiments and being explanatory. Lacaze-Duthiers’s favorite example of an artificially-provoked observation, i.e., an experiment, was the artificial fertilization of eggs provoked in the laboratory for developmental studies. Thus, according to Lacaze-Duthiers, experimentation is possible and necessary in zoology. However, what was then clearly at stake was the definition of experimentation. Thirty years earlier, the philosopher Auguste Comte (1798-1857) had warned scientists that one should not “confuse the observation of an artificial phenomenon with true experiments.” [33]

26Indeed, when the debate about descriptive versus experimental approaches took place at the Académie in 1868, scientists had been exposed to new ideas on experimentation for several decades. In particular, the work of Comte deeply marked all the sciences in the 19th century and one needs to go back to Comte’s writings to better understand the context in which Bernard and Lacaze-Duthiers debated.

27All scientists of that period were familiar with Comte’s work. For instance, Lacaze-Duthiers attended Blainville’s anatomy and physiology courses in the 1840s and Blainville openly supported Comte’s positivist philosophy, “the only philosophy that is truly worthy of our century.” [34] Claude Bernard also had close ties to positivism. Most particularly, he was one of the founders of the Société de biologie in 1848, in which he served as vice-president, a position he shared with Charles Robin, one of Comte’s most devoted advocates. The text describing the goals of the Société de biologie follows Comte’s ideas. As a result, it often was assumed that Bernard was an advocate of positivism too. However, the relations between Bernard and Comte are complex, to say the least. [35]

28Comte’s ideas on experimentation, as most of Comte’s ideas, can only be understood if one keeps in mind that, as the founder of sociology (a term that he coined), he was above all interested in human societies. The two pillars of Comte’s positive philosophy, i.e., the law of three stages and the classification of the sciences, were a means to better understand human societies and build a new political system. Comte’s law of three stages “consists in that each of our main ideas, each branch of our knowledge, goes through three successive, theoretical stages : the theological or fictive stage ; the metaphysical or abstract stage ; the scientific or positive stage.” [36] Comte’s classification of the sciences is a hierarchy of six sciences based on the law of three stages : mathematics, astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology, and sociology. [37]

29Mathematics first reached its positive stage because, being mostly independent from humans, it is simpler. Sociology reached it last because, being closer to humans, it is the most complex science. However, complexity does not mean superiority and all sciences are of equal value in Comte’s mind. [38]

30Comte compares all sciences along this hierarchy by evaluating their modes of investigation. For instance, Comte pays special attention to the comparative method which first appears at the level of biology in his hierarchy (and could be used at the next level, i.e., sociology). In fact, the genesis of Comte’s classification of the sciences owes much to the biological classification. [39]

31Comte and Bernard shared similar views on what experimentation is, but they disagreed on whether experimentation is applicable to organisms and biological phenomena. According to Comte, experimentation is best applicable in physics because physical phenomena are simple. However, it cannot apply in biology because living organisms and organic functions cannot be disturbed for just one factor. [40] Too many other interconnected factors vary when an organism or a function are disturbed, and harmony is then lost. [41] This idea is part of Cuvier’s legacy on Blainville’s work and, then, through Blainville, on Comte’s positive philosophy. [42] Because experimentation cannot be implemented rigorously in biology, observation is the most important mode of investigation. For the first time in the hierarchy of the sciences, observations do involve all our senses. [43]

32The importance of observation in Comte’s biology relates to the fact that, for Comte, biology is a synthetic science in which significant knowledge emerges after many facts and data have been accumulated and compared. In contrast, for Bernard, experimental physiology is an analytical science in which a bright and brief experiment can teach more than years of observations. [44]

33Lacaze-Duthiers and Coste did not use Comte’s arguments, i.e., zoology needs observation and comparison, as originally argued by Cuvier. [45] Instead, they argued that physiology did not own experimentation. However, Comte, Lacaze-Duthiers, and Coste all agreed that biology could not be reduced to physiology alone. Bernard himself acknowledged that the different branches of biological sciences pursue different goals :

34

“The zoologist and the comparative anatomist see all living beings, and they seek to discover through the study of external and internal characters of those beings the morphological laws of their evolution [i.e., embryological development] and transformation [i.e., evolution]. The physiologist places himself from a totally different point of view : he is interested in only one thing, the properties of the living matter and of the mechanism of life, under any of its forms. For him, there no longer are genera, species, or classes, but there only are living beings, and if he selects one of them for his studies, it ordinarily is for the commodity of experimentation.” [46]

35Bernard expresses here clearly his interest in the study of the unity of life, rather than the diversity of life.

36The distinction between unity versus diversity overlaps with the distinction between experimental versus historical biology. Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, Georges Cuvier, Richard Owen or Charles Darwin all attempted to explain life’s diversity through the reconstruction of historical events. In the last quarter of the nineteenth century, according to William Coleman, the historical ideal in biology was replaced by the experimental ideal, or “function displaced form as the goal of biological inquiry.” [47] Lacaze-Duthiers was at heart a historian of life, by training and interests.

37It appears now that the debate between Lacaze-Duthiers and Bernard was meant to remain sterile. First, arguments from both sides would have quickly vanished if the French government had allocated funds to everyone. Second, Bernard was so exclusively interested in the unity of life that he could not understand the importance of studying the diversity of life. Third, Lacaze-Duthiers’s defense of zoology implied that his definition of experimentation differed from that of Bernard (and Comte), which did not include “provoked observations.” Finally, Lacaze-Duthiers had different views on the role of science in the society. Bernard proudly claimed : “For its importance physiology also deserves attention and protection, because it is likely meant to become the most useful science to Humanity, in being the scientific basis for agriculture, hygiene, and medicine, etc.” [48] Lacaze-Duthiers fought back, arguing : “I will even with my modest forces always stand up against such a fatal trend that endangers not only the future of zoology, but also that of all pure, theoretical sciences, independent from immediate applications.” [49]

1870-1871 : Interlude

38The war between the Kingdom of Prussia and the French Empire (1870-1871) played a major role in Lacaze-Duthiers’s decision to create a marine laboratory. When the war was declared (19 July 1870), Lacaze-Duthiers was about to send out the first fascicle of the Archives and the publication had to be delayed. [50] Lacaze-Duthiers then went to Roscoff for the summer for collecting and observing live invertebrates and stayed there during the fall because of phlebitis as well as the circumstances (the war was not over). He was accompanied by his three students Alfred Giard, Perrier, and d’Astre. They stayed at the Hôtel du Pigeon Blanc. [51]

39The war of 1870 between Prussia and France started because of a diplomatic incident (whether or not the Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern could become the new King of Spain). The deeper cause, however, was the competing domination over the rest of continental Europe. The Prussian army attacked France in August 1870. Paris was besieged for four months, until capitulation on January 28, 1871. A peace treaty was signed in March. After a violent repression against the revolutionary Parisian people in May 1871, elections were held and the country got organized again in the summer of 1871. Lacaze-Duthiers did not go to the coast in 1871, mainly to make sure that the Archives would be sent on time to the subscribers. However, Giard stayed in Roscoff from July to November, to study the development of tunicates. [52] In 1871, Lacaze-Duthiers had not decided to install a laboratory at Roscoff. When, on January 1st, 1872, Lacaze-Duthiers explained that the publication of the Archives had been delayed because of the war, he did not mention Roscoff or the creation of a laboratory on the coast. [53]

1872 : Creating an itinerant marine laboratory

40Shortly after the publication of the first fascicle of the Archives, colleagues congratulated Lacaze-Duthiers and informed him about the upcoming creation of a marine laboratory by German scientists, either in Naples or Trieste. [54] In fact, Anton Dohrn created the Zoological Station in Naples in 1872, which officially opened for visitors in 1874. [55] In February 1872, Lacaze-Duthiers immediately requested the French administration to create a similar laboratory in France. The first season of the Laboratoire de zoologie expérimentale took place in the summer of 1872 with Lacaze-Duthiers and his student Perrier. Lacaze-Duthiers also mentioned in his Register that his assistant Lemire was in Noirmoutier, on the Atlantic Coast, where he dredged and explored the possibility of organizing an expedition or transport the laboratory there in the future. [56] Indeed, Lacaze-Duthiers’s original plan was not to settle permanently in Roscoff.

41When creating his laboratory, Lacaze-Duthiers’s main goal was to help support what he called “the reawakening of the intellectual movement in France.” [57] According to Lacaze-Duthiers, it was critical that France, defeated militarily, would not be defeated in science and education. Lacaze-Duthiers wished to offer to a large number of students and young researchers the possibility to work hard and do research in zoology in good, modern conditions, including complete intellectual freedom. [58]

42The decision of installing a laboratory at Roscoff was taken early in 1872, but the installation was not ready for visitors until June 1873. Lacaze-Duthiers’s goal was that visitors could find all they needed to perform efficient studies : housing, laboratory space, equipment, ship time, and skilled fishermen. Everything was free of charge, except meals. That was one of Lacaze-Duthiers’s strong commitments, which helped support and attract students over the years. In contrast, the “tables” at Dohrn’s Zoological Station in Naples were rented by different countries. The laboratory was installed in a rental house by the sea.

43After so many years of experience, Lacaze-Duthiers knew exactly how to organize a functional laboratory : [59] one side of the house faced the south for the light ; aquariums were on a deck protected by a roof ; on the first floor, were two rooms used as offices or laboratories and a living room where visitors could meet and find a variety of common items (thermometers, balances, histological material, maps, books, tide schedule) ; upstairs, six bedrooms served also as lab space ; in each bedroom, visitors could find small aquariums, jars, tide-pooling and fishing tools, nets, buckets, alcohol and fixatives, a box of anatomical tools (scopes with camera lucida, scalpels, forceps, syringes, pencils, paper, colors). Visitors could quickly go get fresh water and live animals ; water was also available in a large tank, where it was freshly replaced at every high tide by two local fishermen. In those early years, two boats were available :la Molgule and la Pentacrine d’Europe. As for dredging, Lacaze-Duthiers used the equipment he had discovered in Algeria. Pierre Lanceplaine participated in setting up the laboratory and teaching local fishermen how to use the dredge.

44Lacaze-Duthiers only used local housing at Roscoff because he did not plan to install a permanent laboratory there :

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“My desire is not to establish a definitive laboratory or zoological station at Roscoff. I would like, in collaboration with young and zealous workers, travel along the coasts of France. […] I would like to move from one station to another with all the equipment installed in a way so that it could be easily carried. […] My project would be to produce a currently-missing history of the fauna of our coasts, by dividing among ourselves the animal kingdom.” [60]

46However, Lacaze-Duthiers was well aware of the advantages that Roscoff offered :

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“I chose Roscoff, in Finistère, by the English Channel, for several reasons, and this despite the fact that it is a little bit far from Paris. The richness of its beaches is extreme, the area of the shore covered and uncovered by the tides is impressive, which is most valuable when searching for animals.” [61]

1872-1876 : Visitors of the laboratory

48Information on visitors (name, title, affiliation, length of visit, studies) was established based on Lacaze-Duthiers’s Register for the station, now in the archives of the station.

49In 1872, only Lacaze-Duthiers and his student Perrier were at Roscoff. Perrier worked on comatules. [62] His assistant Lemire explored the coast around Noirmoutier.

50In 1873, the station hosted four workers. Émile Baudelot (1834-1875), professor of comparative anatomy and zoology at the Faculté des sciences (Nancy), stayed in August and September. From 1858 to 1865, Baudelot had worked with one of Lacaze-Duthiers’s close colleagues, Blanchard. During his stay, Baudelot worked on the nervous system and scales of fishes. [63] Alfred Giard (1846-1908), who had just been appointed professeur suppléant at the Faculté des sciences (Lille), also visited the laboratory in August and September. As Lacaze-Duthiers’s préparateur in Paris, from 1869 to 1872, Giard worked on the development and relationships of tunicates. [64] However, something happened in 1873 because Lacaze-Duthiers wrote on his Register : “Through a conduct that his former master does not wish to comment on, he [Giard] demonstrated clearly his intentions. All relationships were interrupted.” This might explain that Giard created in 1874 a marine laboratory in Wimereux, south of Calais. [65] While at Roscoff, Giard worked on tunicates, including their parasites. [66] Lacaze-Duthiers’s préparateur, Lemire, stayed from June to September and worked on mollusks, bryozoans, and hydrozoans. Finally, Lacaze-Duthiers supervised the installation from April up to the end of July, and left for a cruise off Algeria.

51In 1874, the laboratory remained opened from March to October and hosted nine visitors. François Viault, a Parisian physician who held a licence ès sciences naturelles, stayed from 15 May to 17 June and studied the nervous system of fishes. [67] Eugène Rochefort, physician in the French Navy, stayed in May and June in order to get ready for a cruise to Saint-Paul with the captain Ernest Mouchez (who came as a tourist on 15 August). Aimé Schneider, licencié ès sciences naturelles, stayed in May and June, and worked on gregarines (apicomplexan protists) which parasite marine animals. [68] Alfred Villot, hired as préparateur, stayed from May to 25 July to study nematode development. [69] Herman Fol (1845-1892), professor in Geneva and former student of Ernst Haeckel, stayed from 28 July to 18 August and studied the development of the cephalopod Sepiola and the sea slug Elysia. Edmond Perrier, maître de conférences at the École normale supérieure and aide-naturaliste at the Muséum, stayed from 1 July to 15 August to study the regeneration of comatulid arms and blood circulation in seaurchins. [70] Lemire stayed from 24 September to 16 October to study bryozoan anatomy. Finally, a few persons visited the laboratory for a short period : Anatoli Bogdanov and Alexis Korotneff, from Moscow (7 July) ; Carl Vogt, chancellor of the University of Geneva, and Charles Reinwald, publisher of the Archives de zoologie expérimentale (7 to 12 September).

52In 1875, Lacaze-Duthiers stayed at Roscoff from 20 March to 1st October, to supervise the installation of larger aquariums and continue his work on the local fauna. Some of the nine visitors had already come in the past. Vogt came with his family and assistant Monnier (July to September) to study crustacean parasites, worms, and bryozoans. [71] From 5 July to 8 September, Korotneff (1876), then still a student, studied Lucernaria (Stauromedusae). Schneider studied the geographic distribution of annelid species (22 June to 7 September). Villot studied parasitic and free-living worms, especially trematodes (15 April to 12 September). The laboratory also hosted newcomers. Soyez, one of Baudelot’s students, studied hydroid cnidarians (12 June to 21 August). James Murie, lecturer on comparative anatomy and zoology at the College of Surgeons (London), studied clingfishes (Lepadogaster) and sponges (16 August to 23 September). Charles Martins, professor of natural history at the Faculté de médecine (Montpellier), stayed for the first two weeks of September. Finally, Lucien Brun, student, worked on foraminiferans (20 July to 4 September). At least 13 additional visitors came for a day, out of curiosity or to meet with one of the researchers : Paul Petit, Parisian pharmacist, and Dr Duguet, Parisian physician (25 June) ; Theodor Jarkinsky, University of Kiev (13 August) ; Abraham D. Bartlett, superintendent of the Zoological Society’s Gardens (London) (29 August) ; Simon Sirodot, chancellor of the Faculté des sciences (Rennes), and his collaborator Jules Gallée, amateur naturalist (3 September) ; Paul Topinard, professor at the Institut anthropologique de Paris (14 August) ; René David (9 August), from the École pratique des hautes études (philology) ; Bonafy, surgeon in the French Navy (sometime in September 1875) ; Hesse, from Brest ; Denis Mounnic, from the University of Geneva ; Albert Tissandier ; and Nivet.

53In 1876, the laboratory was opened from the end of May until the beginning of October. Vogt arrived in mid-June and stayed until 10 October to work on loxosomes and parasites of fishes and tunicates. Brun also came back. Sirodot and Gallée made 1,100 algal preparations representing 180 species in 42 days. Lucien Joliet, hired as préparateur, studied bryozoans (5 August to 5 October) for his doctorate. Léon C. Cosmovici, one of Lacaze-Duthiers’s Romanian students, studied the local fauna (7 to 27 July). Camille Viguier worked on the “skeleton” of sea stars (20 August to 22 September). Abel Soreau, teacher in a boarding school at Mantes, near Paris, studied hydroid cnidarians for three weeks. Léon Fredericq, professor at the University of Ghent (Belgium), studied the histology of muscles of sea urchins (10 July to 28 August). Finally, as in previous years, at least eight individuals visited the laboratory for a day (such as a student from Lausanne and some representatives from the nearby town of Morlaix).

54In only five years, Lacaze-Duthiers’s laboratory was successful at attracting many researchers, including from foreign countries (Belgium, England, Russia, and Switzerland). Several visitors decided to come back after their first visit. Visitors included students, young investigators, as well as established scientists. It is noteworthy that, because training of the next generation of professors and researchers was an important goal for Lacaze-Duthiers, many of the visitors were students (about 50 % on average each year).

55Most studies done at Roscoff were published in the Archives, at least during the first years. However, the Archives were targeting a broader authorship and 33 of the 45 articles in the first five volumes (1872-1876) were not linked to the station. [72] Most articles in the Archives were zoological and embryological studies. [73] Systematic revisions were also published, but not necessarily based on Roscoff material. [74] More importantly, the first volumes of the Archives contained few faunistic studies, even though Lacaze-Duthiers wished to publish a Fauna of the French coasts, [75] which was well known among his followers and colleagues :

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“I hope to contribute to the fauna of the coasts of France, of which Mr. the professor de Lacaze-Duthiers has so fortunately conceived the plan, and for which he generously called upon young naturalists of our country.” [76]

1876 : Settling down permanently in Roscoff

57Lacaze-Duthiers decided to settle permanently in Roscoff in 1876 :

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“When I decided to create the laboratories of experimental zoology, I had a well-defined goal that I had to revise since then, without abandoning it completely though. Originally, indeed, I wished to transport the laboratory from one locality to another, after having published a local fauna in each of them. […] Not everything worked out as desired in this direction.” [77]

59Lacaze-Duthiers changed his mind for several reasons. 1/ Most of the studies accomplished at Roscoff focused on development or anatomy, and few studies on the local fauna. 2/ Lacaze-Duthiers probably did not expect that his laboratory would be so satisfactory to visitors. However, the installation planned by Lacaze-Duthiers was the result of two decades of experience and provided perfect conditions to do good work ; the fact that it was entirely free of charge certainly helped its success, especially among the young generation. 3/ Lacaze-Duthiers confessed that he dedicated a great deal of time and energy in the installation of the laboratory. [78] So, why leave Roscoff and spend more time and energy moving the laboratory ? 4/ Finally, as pointed out by Fredericq, “because we keep records of the localities and discoveries, newcomers benefit from the experience acquired and save a great deal of precious time.” [79]

60When Lacaze-Duthiers thought that he should settle permanently in Roscoff, a villa was for sale just across the street from the house rented for the laboratory. At his request, the French government purchased the villa in 1876, which became the new, permanent Laboratoire de zoologie expérimentale. The laboratory was moved in 1877, which marked an important turning point in the history of the station.

61The villa Corbière (so named because it was bought from the Corbière family) undeniably is a special place, not only because of all the research and teaching that took place there starting 1877, but also for all it reminds us of the Corbière family, especially Édouard Corbière (1793-1875), a wealthy ship owner and author of several popular novels, and his son the poet Tristan Corbière (1845-1875), posthumously famous for Les Amours jaunes. The Corbière family lived in Morlaix and spent time at Roscoff occasionally. Tristan Corbière was known for his eccentric personality : dressed as a pirate, he would simulate boarding of local fishing boats. [80] Because he is now regarded as a great poet, a plaque on a wall of the station commemorates that he lived at the villa before it became part of the station. Maybe Lacaze-Duthiers saw him while he was at Roscoff.

62For a few years, the laboratory consisted of the villa and the rental house, which still hosted the aquariums. Lacaze-Duthiers thus requested funds to add a new wing to the villa. A fish tank was built in 1881, followed by new aquariums in the new wing in 1882 (all still in place). On the second floor of the new wing, ten individual work spaces were dedicated to research (bedrooms were in the villa).

63The Association française pour l’avancement des sciences (French Association for the Advancement of Science) made two donations to Lacaze-Duthiers : a new boat, Le Dentale, which could dredge up to 100 meters depth, and a scaphandre, or deep-sea diving suit, designed to collect animals up to 3 meters depth. A few people were instrumental in helping Lacaze-Duthiers get funding from the Association, especially Armand de Quatrefages, Adolphe Wurtz, Adolphe d’Eichtal, all founders of the Association in 1872 and past presidents in 1873, 1874, and 1875, respectively. [81]

64In the winters of 1875 and 1876, Lacaze-Duthiers hired a local fisherman (using funds from the Association) to send fresh animals to universities : some specimens were sent to Clermont-Ferrand, Poitiers, and Paris. [82] In 1877, a fisherman was hired by the Faculté des sciences (Paris), to guard the laboratory, maintain the equipment, and start an official service of free delivery of fresh animals during the winter. Recipients only had to pay for shipping and send back jars and boxes. Between 1877 and 1891, 1,099 boxes were shipped with an average of two or three jars per box in France (Lyon, Grenoble, Besançon, Nancy, Clermont-Ferrand, Rennes, Lille, Poitiers, Bordeaux, Caen, Paris, Toulouse) and foreign countries (Geneva, Edinburgh, Moscow, Ghent). [83]

65Until 1877, the laboratory was exclusively dedicated to research. No courses were taught. All students worked on research projects. In 1877, Lacaze-Duthiers decided to invite a few of his undergraduates at Roscoff. Lacaze-Duthiers legitimately thought that those students would be better-prepared professors as they would teach from their personal observations. [84] One of them, Yves Delage (1854-1920), became director of the station at Lacaze-Duthiers’s death, in 1901.

66It is between 1877 and 1881, while the laboratory was being permanently installed, that it acquired its dual mission of education and research :

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“The efficient preparation to the highest ranks of education, along with the research necessary to the progress of zoology, constitute now [1881] the two goals of the station.” [85]

68However, it is only in the summer of 1881 that students started coming to Roscoff to take formal courses : nine students from the Faculté came to get ready for their licence ès sciences naturelles ; five students from the École normale supérieure came to prepare for the agrégation de sciences naturelles (biology and geology), which had just been created by Edmond Perrier and the botanist Gaston Bonnier (1853-1922). [86] The agrégation is a competitive examination allowing top students to teach in high schools, preparatory schools, and, occasionally, universities.

69In 1881, the Laboratoire de zoologie expérimentale became officially part of the Faculté des sciences (Paris), and the construction of a new station began in Banyuls-sur-Mer, by the Mediterranean. Lacaze-Duthiers needed a marine laboratory for the winter : the first 18 visitors (including three Americans and one Swiss) came in 1883. [87]

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