THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE 



3§i 



tions, including photography of the sun 

 and of the spectra of sun-spots. Mr. 

 John D. Hooker, of Los Angeles, has 

 made a gift of $45,000 for a mirror of 

 one-hundred-inch aperture for a great 

 reflecting telescope. The largest new 

 project planned was also for astronomy 

 and consists of an appropriation of 

 $200,000 extending over a decade for a 

 catalogue giving the precise positions 

 of the brighter stars. This involves 

 the establishment of a meridian ob- 

 servatory in the southern hemisphere. 

 The execution of the work has been en- 

 trusted to Professor Lewis Boss, di- 

 rector of the Dudley Observatory at 

 Albany. 



Next to astronomy, geophysics is 

 most liberally supported by the institu- 

 tion. A special laboratory for geo- 

 physical research is being erected in 

 Washington at a cost of $150,000. Dr. 

 A. L. Day, who will have charge of the 

 department, succeeded last year in pro- 

 ducing quartz glass, which is of value 

 owing to its high melting point and 

 low rate of expansion under tempera- 

 ture changes. Work in terrestrial 

 magnetism under Dr. L. A. Bauer, who 

 has resigned his position in the U. S. 

 Coast and Geodetic Survey, is sup- 



ported by an appropriation of $54,000. 

 The yacht Galilee made last year two 

 voyages in the Pacific, traversing some 

 26,000 miles. 



A new department, established last 

 year, was that of botanical research, 

 under the direction of Dr. D. T. Mac- 

 Dougal, whose headquarters are the 

 Desert Laboratory at Tucson, Ariz. 

 The flora of the arid regions has been 

 studied, including the vegetation' of the 

 Salton Basin, while Dr. MacDougal 

 has continued his experiments at the 

 New York Botanical Garden on discon- 

 tinuous variation in plants. One of 

 the larger projects is also the work in 

 horticulture of Mr. Luther Burbank. 



Two departments are devoted to biol- 

 ogy. Work in experimental evolution 

 is conducted under the direction of 

 Professor Charles B. Davenport at Cold 

 Spring Harbor, where land has been 

 secured and a laboratory erected. The 

 other is the department of marine biol- 

 ogy conducted under Dr. A. G. Mayer 

 at the Dry Tortugas, Florida. A tem- 

 porary laboratory has been built there. 



Work in nutrition has been carried 

 on by Professor F. G. Benedict, Pro- 

 fessor R. S. Chittenden and Professor 

 F. B. Osborne. This is regarded as one 



View of the Main Laboratory at the Tortugas Station for Marine Biology of the 



Carnegie Institution. 



