2/8 REPORTS ON INVESTIGATIONS AND PROJECTS. 



POLITICAL SCIENCE. 



Rowe, L. S., University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Grant 

 No. 701, allotted December 13, 1910. Study of federal system of Mex- 

 ico. (For previous reports see Year Books Nos. 8-10.) $1,500 



In 1910, under a grant from the Carnegie Institution of Washington, Dr. 

 Rowe began the study of the Mexican federal system. During his stay in 

 Mexico he completed the following chapters : 



Chapter I. The basis of the Mexican federal system. Antecedents of the Con- 

 stitution of 1857. 



Chapter II. The provisional organic law of 1856 and the Constitution of Febru- 

 ary 5, 1857. 



Chapter III. Amendments to the Constitution of 1857. 



Chapter IV. Organization of the Federal Government; Relative position of the 

 Executive, Legislative, and Judicial authorities. 



In 191 1 Dr. Rowe returned to Mexico for a period of two months, and in 

 1912 for a similar period for the purpose of continuing the investigations. 

 These trips were made without any further grants from the Institution ; 

 their purpose has been to collect material for the completion of the two most 

 difficult chapters of the work, viz : 



Chapter V. The constitutional position of the States. 



Chapter VI. Constitutional guarantees in the Mexican political system. 



The difficulty encountered in securing accurate data for these two chapters 

 is due in large measure to the wide discrepancy between law and fact in the 

 Mexican constitutional system. The repeated suspension of constitutional 

 guarantees during the recent revolutions has furnished much valuable ma- 

 terial for the final chapter of the work. 



ZOOLOGY. 



Castle, W. E., Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Grant No. 

 758, allotted December 15, 191 1. Continuation of experimental study 

 of heredity in small mammals. $1,000. Grant No. 739, allotted Novem- 

 ber 27, 191 1. For the purpose of obtaining in South America living 

 specimens of Cavia to be used in hybridization experiments zvith the 

 guinea-pig, and for the prosecution of such experiments. $1,500. (For 

 previous reports see Year Books Nos. 3-10.) $2,500 



Dr. John C. Phillips and the grantee have continued on a larger scale than 

 in any previous year their selection experiments with rats. As a result they 

 continue to obtain more and more modified conditions of the color pattern 

 which they have been attempting to alter by "mass selection." They con- 

 clude that selection is a genuine creative agency in evolution and animal 

 breeding, not a mere sorting-out agency of unit-character combinations. In 

 this they substantiate Darwin's opinions in so far as those opinions differ 

 from current "mutational" and "pure-line" ideas. 



