DEPARTMENT OF MARINE BIOLOGY. IIQ 



Another research which will demand several years for its completion is that 

 of Prof. W. L. Tower, whose well-known work upon the experimental pro- 

 duction of new characters in insects is to be continued at Tortugas. Dr. 

 Tower brought to the station a supply of food plants, which are now being 

 reared under the cover of large cages of fine-meshed wire-netting, and which 

 will thus be ready in 1909 for the introduction of the beetles upon which he 

 expects to experiment. The warm, uniform temperature, excessive aerial 

 moisture, and the perfect isolation of the Tortugas render the station an ap- 

 parently ideal situation for some of Dr. Tower's experiments. 



It is the aim of the Laboratory to afiford unrivaled facilities for the prose- 

 cution of researches such as have not hitherto been conducted within the 

 tropics. Biological research in the torrid zone has been practically confined 

 to the collection of specimens, which have then been brought into temperate 

 regions for study, and almost nothing has been done in the study of living 

 forms within the tropics themselves. Thus we know but little of the habits, 

 physiology, embryology, laws of heredity, etc.. of tropical animals and plants, 

 although some of these afford opportunities for study not presented by the 

 forms of the temperate regions. The Laboratory is therefore devoting its 

 energies largely to the encouragement of researches into the laws governing 

 life, rather than to the systematic collection of groups which have already 

 been extensively studied. 



The laboratory is placed upon the most inaccessible island along the entire 

 range of the Atlantic coast of the United States, but due to the kindly aid 

 which has been so cordially rendered to us by Commodore William H.Beehler, 

 U. S. N., Commandant of the United States Naval Station at Key West, it 

 has been found possible to maintain the station in a state of full efficiency in 

 all respects. 



This isolation greatly increases the expense of maintaining the Laboratory ; 

 indeed no agency in our country other than the Carnegie Institution could 

 succeed in so doing. On tlie other hand, the absolute freedom from interrup- 

 tion is a blessing unknown elsewhere in our busy land. The investigators of 

 the Laboratory have been chosen from among the most promising of our 

 country's productive students, but the success which has been achieved by 

 them at Tortugas is due in nearly equal measure to their assurance of free- 

 dom from interruption. 



The Laboratory was placed upon the Tortugas on account of the proximity 

 of the warmest and purest water of the Gulf Stream, with its rich pelagic life 

 and luxuriant coral reefs, and on account of its freedom from mosquitoes and 

 tropical diseases, but the most unique of our advantages is that of isolation. 



During the season of 1908 a veranda 15 feet wide was constructed to cool 

 the air which enters the Laboratory from the eastern side. This veranda is 

 provided with a concrete floor which is surrounded by a moat filled with 



