REPORT OF THE PRESIIJENT, 1906. 23 



the States of the United States. The data for several States are now ready 

 for pubhcation, and the work of printing will doubtless be started during 

 the coming year. 



One of the most promising as well as novel and interesting departments 

 of work started by the Institution is that devoted to experimental evolution 

 at Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island, New York, under 

 Department of Experi- ^^^ direction of Prof. Charles B. Davenport. In this 

 mental Evolution. ^^^^^^^^^^ an attempt is being made to determine by 

 direct obser\'ation and experiment the characteristic relations, or laws, mani- 

 fested by the complicated process of evolution in plants and animals. Thus 

 the phenomena of heredity, hybridization, mutation, etc., are here studied 

 by substantially the same methods as those applied by the astronomer to the 

 stars or by the chemist to inorganic matter. And just as these methods 

 have yielded an abundant harvest of valuable results in the latter sciences, 

 so may we confidently anticipate at least equally valuable results from the 

 application of like methods to the problems of evolution. The intrinsic 

 difficulties of these problems are very great, however, and they demand, there- 

 fore, an ample allowance of time as well as a peculiar degree of patience for 

 their solution. For the work of this department especially, and for nearly all 

 of the departmental work of the Institution in fact, a decade is the smallest 

 convenient time unit for measuring the progress of the more important 

 investigations now under way. 



As may be seen from the report of the Director (pages 92-104) and from 

 the bibliography (pages 45-52) several publications have issued from the 

 department during the year, the most noteworthy of which is a contribution 

 entitled " Inheritance in Poultry," by Professor Davenport. 



Geophysical investigations have been carried on independently during the 



year along three distinct lines by three investigators, namely, Prof. F. D. 



Adams, of McGill University, Montreal, and by Dr. George 



Work in Geophysics. ^ ^^^^^^ ^^^ ^^ ^^^^^^ ^ ^^^^ ^^ ^^^ U. S. Geological 



Survey. As explained at length in my report of the preceding year, the 

 novel experimental work under the direction of Dr. Day requires unusual 

 laboratory facilities, especially in the way of high-temperature and high- 

 pressure equipment and ample space therefor. To meet this requirement, 

 the Trustees at their last meeting, in response to a recommendation of the 

 Executive Committee, voted an appropriation of $150,000 for the purchase 

 of a site and for the construction and equipment of a laboratory adequate 

 to this work. Accordingly a site of five acres of land, on- an isolated hill in 

 the subdivision known as Azadia, in the District of Columbia, was pur- 

 chased. Title was acquired to this site on March 17, 1906. Plans for the 

 proposed laboratory were prepared by Messrs. Wood, Donn and Deming, 

 architects, of Washington, D. C, and the contract for the construction was 

 let to Richardson and Burgess, Inc., of Washington, D. C, on July 6, 1906. 



