304 TWENTY-FOURTH REPORT. 



6. THE ORGANIZATION AND POLICIES OF 

 THE MARINE BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY. 



The Marine Biological Laboratory is an outpost of the higher 

 educational and research institutions of the country. Representa- 

 tives of such institutions are eligible to membership in the con- 

 trolling body, the Corporation of the Marine Biological Labora- 

 tory, composed of over 400 persons, mostly biologists. Institu- 

 tions also have further control and interest through their ability 

 for a moderate sum to use assigned quarters for members of their 

 staff or student body. They may thus from year to year continue 

 to occupy the same quarters and possess veritable extra-territorial 

 control. The Laboratory actually belongs to the biologists and 

 through them to their institutions. The function of the adminis- 

 tration of the Laboratory is the execution of a trust held for com- 

 mon use. 



The organization thus provides for a nominal sum facilities that 

 would cost each institution many times the amount to provide inde- 

 pendently. This is important even for the largest institutions, and 

 indispensable for all the smaller institutions that aim to maintain 

 the research spirit of members of their staffs. 



i. Organization. The Marine Biological Laboratory is an inde- 

 pendent Corporation operating under its own charter. The act of 

 incorporation of the Marine Biological Laboratory and the By- 

 laws of the Corporation are printed in each of the Annual Reports. 

 The membership of the Corporation and of the Board of Trustees 

 is also printed in the same places. The Corporation meets on the 

 second Tuesday in August each year at the Laboratory. At each 

 annual meeting it elects eight trustees to serve four years, and a 

 Treasurer and Clerk of the Corporation who are ex officio mem- 

 bers of the Board of Trustees ; the Director and Assistant Director, 

 who are appointed by the Trustees, are also ex officio members of 

 the Board. 



The Trustees, who are mostly biologists selected for their scien- 

 tific attainments, have the control and management of the affairs 

 of the Corporation; they, on their part, delegate most of their 



