MARINE BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY. 



first to be established in the Laboratory and as lying at the 

 foundation of the more advanced work. The directors have 

 therefore considered the question of a successor to Professor 

 Curtis with great care, and they are happy to be able to announce 

 that Professor Caswell Grave, of Johns Hopkins University, has 

 accepted the appointment as Professor Curtis' successor. We 

 believe that no better selection could have been made. Professor 

 Grave is given a free hand in the selection of other instructors in 

 the course. 



The attendance in 1911 taxed the resources of the Laboratory 

 to the utmost. The number of investigators was 82 during the 

 entire season and of students 65, a total of 147. For comparison 

 I give the figures since 1903: 



But the actual increase in the number of investigators does not 

 tell the full story. For several years there has been a steadily 

 growing tendency on the part of workers at the Laboratory to 

 make Woods Hole their regular summer home and to purchase 

 houses there. The body of workers at the Laboratory has thus 

 become not only larger, but more constant in attendance; the 

 increase of attendance this year is therefore to be regarded as 

 normal, not due to exceptional causes. That the Laboratory 

 should come to be regarded as their regular summer home and 

 \\orking place by so large a number of prominent naturalists 

 must be a source of gratification to all the members of the board; 

 while it serves at the same time to emphasize anew the need of 

 greatly increased accommodations. Such over-crowding as ex- 

 isted for a considerable part of last summer is certainly undesir- 

 able and its continuance for any considerable length of lime 

 rmild not be anticipated with composure. Neither do we wish 

 to restrict the policy of hospitality which has been so character- 

 i-tic of the Laboratory in the past. 



The proposed new building is, therefore, a necessity for working 

 space alone. And it is equally important for two other reasons: 



