﻿THE SMITHSONIAN TABLE AT THE NAPLES 

 ZOOLOGICAL STATION 



By HELEN WALDO BURNSIDE 



In the winter of 1893 a memorial was addressed to the Smith- 

 sonian Institution asking that it become responsible for the support 

 of a table for original research in the Naples Zoological Station. 

 This memorial, signed by nearly two hundred working biologists, 

 who represented approximately eighty universities, colleges, and 

 scientific institutions in the United States, received due consideration 

 and in April, 1893, Secretary Langley announced that it had been 

 decided to procure a table at the Station on behalf of the Institution 

 for three years. 



Desiring to acquaint himself with the views of representative 

 biologists in regard to the best administration of the table, the Secre- 

 tary recommended the formation of an advisory committee of four 

 persons, one each to be nominated by four of the prominent scien- 

 tific societies of the country. In accordance with this suggestion, 

 Doctor J. S. Billings, U. S. A., was named by the President of the 

 National Academy of Sciences, Professor E. B. Wilson of Columbia 

 University, New York, on behalf of the Society of American Nat- 

 uralists, Doctor C. W. Stiles of the U. S. Department of Agricul- 

 ture on behalf of the American Morphological Society, and Pro- 

 fessor John A. Ryder of the University of Pennsylvania to represent 

 the Association of American Anatomists. These nominations were 

 ratified, Doctor Billings being designated by the Secretary of the 

 Institution as chairman of the committee, and Doctor Stiles as secre- 

 tary. The Committee as thus constituted remained unchanged until 

 the appointment in May, 1895, of Doctor Harrison Allen to the 

 vacancy caused by the death of Doctor Ryder; and in January, 1898, 

 the appointment of Doctor Theodore Gill, with Doctor G. S. Hunt- 

 ington as alternate, to the place made vacant by the death of Doctor 

 Allen. During the same year Doctor Albert Hassall, of the U. S. 

 Department of Agriculture, was accepted as the representative of 

 Doctor Stiles, during the absence of the latter in Europe, and Doctor 

 T. H. Morgan of Bryn Mawr has twice served in the place of Doctor 

 AYilson during similar absences. During its entire tenure of the table 

 the Smithsonian has therefore had the valuable aid of substantially 



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