THE MARINE BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY. 305 



functions to an executive committee of five members, including the 

 Director and Assistant Director ex officio. 



The membership of the Corporation represents all important 

 phases of biological research and most American institutions in 

 which such work is done. Any competent investigator qualified 

 for admission to the principal national research societies in Biology 

 is eligible for membership, which is also open to other persons 

 willing and qualified to render useful service to the Corporation. 

 (See rules of eligibility in the records of the Clerk of the Cor- 

 poration.) The ultimate control and ownership of the Labora- 

 tory is vested in the Corporation. 



2. Purpose. The primary purpose of the Marine Biological 

 Laboratory is the advancement of Biological Science. This is the 

 first consideration in every matter of policy. The scope is con- 

 ceived as broad as the field of biology, but the aim is to promote 

 the fundamental and more general rather than the systematic and 

 more special problems. The fundamental problems trace back to 

 the cell, and are based ultimately on physics and chemistry; they 

 thus require some of the special equipment of both of these fields. 

 Considerations of pure science are primary and those of utility 

 secondary, though recognized as important. Thus the work of the 

 Laboratory bears important relations to medicine, agriculture, 

 fisheries, and economic biology. 



3. Research. Individual research is the foundation of all ad- 

 vance in science. Hence all policies of the Laboratory are directed 

 toward the investigator with the object of furnishing him oppor- 

 tunities, facilities, and freedom for research. 



The Laboratory has no set program of research as an institution, 

 but aims to be hospitable to all branches of biological science; it 

 should thus reflect and stimulate progress in all directions, if not 

 simultaneously, at least in the course of time. 



It is the policy of the Laboratory to favor such forms of coop- 

 eration in research as develop naturally. The mere association of 

 so many investigators as meet annually at the Laboratory inevitably 

 develops cooperative relations of various kinds, and this is re- 

 garded as one of the most valuable results of the organization. 



Investigators are admitted to the Marine Biological Laboratory 



