An innovative instrument dedicated to the multispectral measurements of the directional and polarized scattering properties of the hydrosols, so-called POLVSM, is described. The instrument could be used onboard a ship, as a benchtop instrument, or at laboratory. The originality of the POLVSM concept relies on the use of a double periscopic optical system whose role is (i) to separate the plane containing the light source from the scattering plane containing the sample and the receiver and (ii) to prevent from any specularly reflected light within the sample chamber. As a result, a wide range of scattering angle, namely from 1 degrees to 179 degrees, is covered by the detector. Another originality of the instrument is to measure the Mueller scattering matrix elements, including the degree of polarization. A relevant calibration procedure, which could be of great interest as well for other instruments, is proposed to convert the raw data into physical units. The relative uncertainty in POLVSM data was determined at +/- 4.3%. The analysis of measurements of the volume scattering function and degree of polarization performed under controlled conditions for samples dominated either by inorganic hydrosols or phytoplankton monospecific species showed a good consistency with literature, thus confirming the good performance of the POLVSM device. Comparisons of POLVSM data with theoretical calculations showed that Mie theory could reproduce efficiently the measurements of the VSF and degree of polarization for the case of inorganic hydrosols sample, despite the likely non sphericity of these particles as revealed by one of the element of the Mueller matrix. Our results suggested as well that a sophisticated modeling of the heterogeneous internal structure of living cells, or at least, the use of layered sphere models, is needed to correctly predict the directional and polarized effects of phytoplankton on the oceanic radiation. The relevance of performing angularly resolved measurements of the Mueller scattering elements to gain understanding on the mechanisms processes involved in the scattering of light by marine particles, which has important implications for ocean color remote sensing studies, is demonstrated. (C) 2014 Optical Society of America