This volume offers a comprehensive history of the Mount Desert Island
Biological Laboratory (MDIBL), one of the major marine laboratories in
the United States and a leader in using marine organisms to study
fundamental physiological concepts. Beginning with its founding as the
Harpswell Laboratory of Tufts University in 1898, David H. Evans follows
its evolution from a teaching facility to a research center for
distinguished renal and epithelial physiologists. He also describes how
it became the site of major advances in cytokinesis, regeneration,
cardiac and vascular physiology, hepatic physiology, endocrinology and
toxicology, as well as studies of the comparative physiology of marine
organisms. Fundamental physiological concepts in the context of the
discoveries made at the MDIBL are explained and the social and
administrative history of this renowned facility is described.