186 CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON. 



sadly incomplete. Nor does the systematic study of a group blind us 

 to the opportunity it affords for experimentation, for indeed among 

 our ablest experimenters are those who began their scientific work as 

 systematists. 



The Laboratory has been criticized for the apparently aimless and 

 heterogeneous character of its research work, but in such matters we 

 are forced in some measure to be opportunists. Wherever a problem 

 appears and a preeminently competent man can be obtained to attempt 

 its solution, we deem it our privilege and indeed our special function 

 to extend to him the opportunities afforded by the Tortugas. 



Certain problems can be attacked at Tortugas as nowhere else in the 

 world at present. Such are those of the coral reefs, of the habits and 

 color of reef fishes, the analysis of tropical sea-water, the formation 

 and solution of limestones in a tropical area, and, above all, physiological 

 experiments of a difficult sort can here be performed, due to the purity 

 and reliability of the sea-water, free as it is from contamination duo to 

 man. We are, moreover, fortunate in having in abundance the scypho- 

 medusa Cassiopea xamachana, a truly remarkable animal for experi- 

 mental studies. Thus, while to a superficial view our researches may 

 seem varied to the degree of being aimless, yet each one has been of a 

 character for the study of which the Tortugas has afforded a pecuhar 

 advantage; our investigations have aimed to reveal the underlying 

 laws which control the vital processes of the marine animals of the 

 tropics, and the illuminating studies by Vaughan and Drew of the geo- 

 logic and organic processes which have given rise to the limestones of 

 Florida have revolutionized our conception of the geologic importance 

 of coral reefs. 



The Laboratory studiously avoids encouraging work which may as 

 well be done elsewhere. It is our aim to extend and to supplement 

 the efforts of other institutions and in no sense to become the rival 

 of any. For the sake of progress, we must augment, not duplicate, 

 research. If a field of research is adequately covered by existing agen- 

 cies, the Laboratory, as a department of the Carnegie Institution of 

 Washington, has every reason to refrain from entering it, and this, of 

 itself, must make our choice of subjects appear both arbitrary' and 

 undirected to those who have not fully appreciated the conditions under 

 which we labor. 



