CHAPTER XX 
THE INTERNATIONAL CIRCUMPOLAR 
STATIONS 
THE importance of scientific research in the polar 
regions has been more or less appreciated since 
the beginning of the 19th century. Only within 
the past fifty years have the natural sciences been 
regularly represented on polar voyages, and valu- 
able as were the results they were restricted and 
inconclusive. A revolution was wrought in this 
respect through the efforts of Lieutenant Charles 
Weyprecht, Austrian Navy, which eventuated in 
the establishment of the International Circumpo- 
lar Stations. 
His experiences in the Tegetthof (Chapter XIV) 
bore fruit in an address to the German Scientific 
and Medical Association, at Gratz in 1875. Dem- 
onstrating that extended polar explorations were 
essential to the elucidation of the laws of Nature, 
he urged that scientific methods should dominate 
future action. Scientific research should be the 
primary object, and geographic exploration should 
be pursued in such directions as would increase 
our knowledge in some branch of science. Subjects 
of study should be carried on in specially selected 
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