632 A MARINE UNIVERSITY. 



that artilicial fertilization is as iinich physical as chemical. Mead, 

 Conklin, and mail}' others, following- the l^elgian, French, and German 

 schools, had long been studying the internal changes in natural ferti- 

 lization, and as a sequel to these discoveries are the recent researches 

 and experiments of Prof. Edmund B. Wilson on the changes which go 

 on in the egg after artilicial fertilization. These were presented before 

 the International Zoological Congress at Berlin and atti'acted much 

 attention. They show that the unfertilized egg, by the addition of 

 magnesium salts, is aljle to create a complete mechanism of cell division. 

 But under this unaccustomed stinuilus, in the words of Wilson, "the}^ 

 manifest a nuiltitude of aberrations which constitute a veritable 

 carnival of development, which one can hardl}^ witness without a sense 

 of amazement." These aberrations are of high interest on account of 

 the side light they throw on many debated problems of normal cell 

 function and structure. 



The value of all these observations hinges, of course, upon the 

 essential unit}' of protoplasm throughout the animal kingdom; as in 

 Huxley's prophec}', whatever applies to the protoplasm of sea-urchins 

 we may be sure applies in some degree to the protoplasm which con- 

 stitutes the basis of human life. 



The life and the social congress at Woods Hole are almost as varied 

 as the problems investigated there. School teachers from all over the 

 Union, students from the smaller inland colleges and the largest uni- 

 versities, young aspirants for the doctor's degree, older men of inter- 

 national reputation in botany, zoology, physiology, ps^T'hology, all 

 come under the magnetism of the ''M. B. L.," as it is familiarly 

 known. Work is not too streinious, it is tempered ])y the undercur- 

 rent of the feeling that, after all, this is sunnner vacation time and 

 one must not be too serious. In fact, at Woods Hole, as with our 

 English and continental scientitic brethen, life is well ])alanced and 

 altogether reasona])le while no less productive. 



Among the things evidently of supreme value in the modern univer- 

 sity are: the traditions and history of the institution; its appropriate 

 location and housing; the availability of the sources and instruments 

 of knowledge; the presence of a cosmopolitan assemblage of the stu- 

 dents and teachers of numerous sciences — ail of which, we have seen, 

 constitutes the charm of our "marine universUv." 



