DEPARTMENT OF MARINE BIOLOGY. 191 



In addition to those who studied either at Porto Rico or the Tortugas, 

 three investigators were aided in conducting researches in other regions, 

 their work being either an extension of studies commenced at Tortugas 

 or closely associated with the work of the Laboratory. 



Of these, Professor Ulric Dahlgren continued his study of the his- 

 tology of electrical tissue in fishes. 



Dr. E. Newton Harvey visited Cuba to obtain and to endeavor to 

 analyze the luminous substance which he has succeeded in isolating by 

 solution from the bodies of both marine and terrestrial animals. In this 

 connection he should be enabled to visit Japan in order to study the 

 phosphorescent squid. 



Dr. E. I. Werber received a grant to enable him to procure certain 

 necessary things in connection with his research upon the control of the 

 abnormal development of fish embryos. 



Altogether the year has been one of varied and successful research, 

 most of the studies opening the door to wide fields of scientific inquiry 

 and thus assuring other even more progressive years to come in the 

 endeavor of the Laboratory to advance the cause of experimental 

 biology in the tropics. We have also determined the availability of 

 v^arious sites in the West Indies for scientific researches which in the 

 future we hope to undertake, and while our plans must necessarily 

 be conservative, due to the uncertainties of these troubled days of war, 

 yet our prospect for continued usefulness never seemed brighter than 

 at present, when, with the support of the ablest young students of our 

 land and with the fruits of ten years of experience to guide us, the Lab- 

 oratory has graduated from the experimental stage wherein many 

 predicted its failure and has become one of our fixed and respected 

 institutions of learning. Its national influence may be measured by 

 the fact that of the 67 titles of papers upon biological subjects pre- 

 sented by students from all parts of the United States at the last 

 meeting of the Society of American Zoologists in Philadelphia, 9 

 were upon work conducted under the auspices of the Department of 

 Marine Biology. It is hoped that in coming years its part may become 

 more prominent, and that the Laboratory may come to be not only a 

 station known to Americans, but one of international service to science. 



Volumes 7 and 8 of ''Papers from the Department of Marine Biol- 

 ogy" were pubhshed during the year by the Carnegie Institution of 

 Washington, as pubhcations Nos. 211 and 212. 



Volume 7 contains the final report of Professor John B. Watson and 

 his assistant, Dr. K. S. Lashley, upon the reactions of the gulls of Bird 

 Key, and other birds, special attention being devoted to the cause of 

 the "homing instinct," which, indeed, the authors do not explain, 

 although they determine that sight and the sense of smell are not 

 adequate to account for the homing instinct, and suggest that a "mag- 



