REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES. I I 



herence to these ideals and to what an extent the spirit and 

 success of the laboratory are clue to them. 



Woods Hole is indeed a national center for research in several 

 branches, if not in every department, of biology. Whitman had 

 the wisdom to see that biology could progress only as a whole. 

 : The great charm of a biological station," he wrote, " must be 

 the fullness with which it represents the biological system. Its 

 power and efficiency diminish in geometrical ratio with every 

 source of light excluded." To zoology, which was the only sub- 

 ject represented at first, he added botany and physiology and he 

 strove to make Woods Hole a center in each of these depart- 

 mnts. He was one of the first to insist upon adequate provision 

 for experimental work. He was, we believe, the first in this 

 country to plan and plead for a biological farm for the study of 

 problems of heredity and evolution. He desired to make Woods 

 Hole a center for the comparative study of anatomy, pathology 

 and psychology. Some of these lines of work have since been 

 taken up and largely developed elsewhere, but if Whitman could 

 have had the necessary support in his plans they would have 

 been centered at Woods Hole. This need of a national center 

 of research in every department of biology is still before the 

 laboratory as a living issue, and although this grand concept has 

 so far failed of complete realization, who can say how much the 

 laboratory owes to this catholicity of spirit of its director, how 

 much biology as a whole owes to this splendid ideal? 



If the laboratory was to be truly national, Professor Whitman 

 believed that it must be founded upon the cooperation of in- 

 dividuals and institutions ; no one man nor institution, however 

 great, could accomplish this purpose. He recognized that com- 

 mon ideals must form the basis of such cooperation, and he 

 sought to bring into close connection with the laboratory every 

 person and every institution that shared these ideals with himself. 

 With these ideals, and by means of his own personal charm and 

 scientific abilities, Whitman secured the cooperation of many 

 of the younger biologists of the country. There was thus de- 

 veloped at Woods Hole a center for research work in biology 

 which has had few equals in the history of the world. By his 

 own work, as well as by his appreciation of the really funda- 



