SECRETARY'S REPORT 41 



Dr. William R. Taylor, associate curator of fishes, developed a new 

 technique in the preparation of specimens for osteological study in- 

 volvmg the use of solutions of the enzjrme trypsin buffered with sodium 

 l)orate. This treatment, which removes the muscle tissue, has proved 

 effective in making both preserved and fresh specimens translucent ; the 

 connective tissue, cartilage, bones, viscera, and major nerves remaining. 



Associate curator Stanley H. Weitzman completed a study of two 

 genera of Asiatic muinows, three manuscripts dealing with South 

 American catfishes, and a study of the osteology and relationships 

 of the characid subfamilies Lebiasininae and Erythrininae. 



Dr. J. A. F. Garrick, honorary research associate, who worked in 

 the division of fishes last year, returned to his home in Wellington, 

 New Zealand, where he is continuing his world revision of carcha- 

 rhinid sharks. During May he visited Australia to study specimens 

 of sharks not available in museums of Europe, America, or Africa. 

 His critical revision of carcharhinid sharks is the first ever attempted. 



From the end of December 1963 to mid-February 1964 Dr. Donald 

 F. Squires, curator of marine invertebrates, was a participant in the 

 "MacQuarie Gap" cruise of the New Zealand Oceanographic Institute 

 aboard HMNZS Endeavour. Although the nominal purpose of the 

 cruise was to determine the topographic relationship between the 

 MacQuarie Ridge and New Zealand, considerable marine biological 

 work was scheduled. To Dr. Squires's profit, 11 of the 79 bottom 

 dredgings and bottom trawls contained living corals. Through use 

 of the ship's refrigerators, these were kept alive for up to 10 days, thus 

 advancing culturing tecliniques. The most significant advance in 

 marine knowledge resulting from the cruise was the location and 

 dredging of the first deep-water coral structure found outside the 

 North Atlantic. 



In the museum, Dr. Squires finished, with the assistance of Ian W. 

 Keys, senior paleontological teclinician. New Zealand Geological Sur- 

 vey, a study of the biomechanics of the scleractinian coral Manicina 

 areolata. He also completed several other studies on fossil and recent 

 corals. 



Associate curator Thomas E. Bowman completed an account of an 

 arostrate population of the planktonic calanoid copepod Aeartia 

 liUjehorgii, from St. Lucia, West Indies. He described a new genus 

 and species of cirolanid isopod from Madison Cave, Va., the first 

 troglobitic cirolanid to be found in the United States outside of Texas; 

 a new anthurid isopod from the Caguanes Caves in Cuba ; and a new 

 mysid crustacean, abmidant in Lake Ponchartrain, La. With L. J. 

 Lancaster, he described a bloom of the planktonic blue-green alga 

 Skujaella in the Tonga Islands, 



During most of April and May associate curator Charles E. Cut- 

 ress, Jr., accompanied by Kjell Sandved serving as photographer, 



