DEPARTMENT REPORTS. 101 



I wish to mil ntloiilion to tlio inadequate office room for our de- 

 partment and also (o (lie fact that onr ollice has no moans of ventilating 

 except through the doors and windows, 



Resj)cctfullv submitted, 



MAUniCE ¥. JOHNSON, 

 Acting Head of Department of i\rathematics. 

 East Lansing, Mich., June 30, 1913. 



• REPORT OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ZOOLOGY AND 



PHYSIOLOGY. 



To the President : 



Sir — I have the honor 1o submit the following report for the De; 

 partment of Zoology and Physiology and the General Museum for the 

 3ear ending June 30, 1913 : 



As forecast in the report for last year, only tw^o changes in the teach- 

 ing staff of the department became necessary, Mr. Allen C. Conger, Ohio 

 Wesleyan, 1910, succeeding Mr. H. S. Osier and Mr. Verne E. LeRoy 

 replacing Mr. Royal E. Davis. Both have done excellent work and 

 have been reengaged for the coming year. Since both had had one or 

 more year's experience in teaching before coming here, the work of the 

 department Avent on smoothly and with little or no loss of efficiency. It 

 is a pleasure to record that all members of the force have worked 

 earnestly and harmoniously for the best interests of the department and 

 college and we are to be congratulated that no change in the staff is 

 likely to occur this coming year. 



The program of 'the department, with its three sub-divisions, zoology, 

 physiology, and geology, involves so large an amount of laboratory work 

 that it has been difficult at times to find proper accommodations for the 

 many sections meeting at the same hour. At present more than half of 

 the work is given in the new Agricultural P>uilding and the remainder 

 in the museum building, which necessitates the almost daily transfer 

 of equipment, laboratory material, aiid museum specimens, from one 

 l»uilding to another, and entails much additional work and some loss of 

 time for the instructors. It is hoped that the conditions now obtaining 

 in this respect may be materially improved in the near future. 



During the coming year the advanced Avork in human physiology 

 (nutrition) will be continued, as well as the veterinary physiology Avhich 

 has been cared for by this department during the past year. A slight 

 change will be made in the work in general zoology by which veterinary 

 freshmen taking this subject will cover the entire animal kingdom in- 

 stead of merely the invertebrates. The elective work offered hereto- 

 fore under the head of embrs'ology, heredity and evolution, and con- 

 fined to a single term, has proved so popular and valuable that it seems 

 almost imperative that more time be given to these subjects, especially 

 in view of the immense importance which the study of genetics has re- 

 cently assumed. 



This seems to be the pro])er time and place to renew a recommenda- 

 tion made several times in the past that a full year of general zoology 



