PROGRESS IN BIOLOGICAL INQUIRIES, 1926 659 
to various food substances—oysters and clams. He placed the drills and some 
oysters, opened or unopened, in a tank. The drill invariably would migrate 
toward the oyster, whether the oyster was or was not opened, and proceed to 
eat it. This is about all we know about the oyster drill. 
Of course, my talk is going to be about what I want to do instead of what 
I have done. I therefore believe it would be better at first to give a plan 
of the problem as I see it. The problem is very complex—in fact, the more 
you think of it, the more complex it becomes. The whole problem could be 
divided into two or three separate problems. The first thing to know is 
something about the anatomy of the organism, because structure is nothing 
but erystallized function. It is necessary to know something about the struc- 
ture in order to know something about the behavior. The second thing is to 
state the natural history of the organism. By that I mean the fertilization, 
spawning, growth, migration, if any, and its distribution, etc. The third 
problem relates to the reactions of the organism to experimental conditions; 
that is, supplementing the field work with work in the laboratory—experiments 
in which we know most of the conditions and in which conditions can be con- 
trolled, so that under the same conditions we shall be able to predict the 
reaction. Doctor Galtsoff called attention to that—that ecology must be 
supplemented by laboratory experiments in order to understand the behavior 
of the organism. Then the last problem—to find a method of controlling the 
organism. It seems very probable that if something is known about the natural 
history of the drill, some way of getting rid of it will suggest itself. The 
organism must have some bad habit. I am interested in getting rid of the 
organism or in reducing its numbers to such an extent that it will be negligible. 
As the work progresses, new problems will arise, and some of the intended 
work will be neglected for more important work; but I believe the plan must 
go forward to obtain results. The work has been going on for 10 weeks. It 
is being conducted at Craney Island, a United States Public Health Service 
quarantine station. They have given me two rooms; one is heated and the 
other is not. The first part of the work consisted in equipping a laboratory 
and an aquarium room. 
The oyster drill is a small gastropod, whose average length is about 1 inch. 
Larger ones occur, but only rarely. It is found everywhere where marine bivalves 
are found. It is distributed along the whole Atlantic coast. Up until two or 
three years ago the “drill” was almost unknown in the more inland waters 
(Chesapeake Bay). Recently it has invaded the more inland oyster beds 
and has caused great losses. From actual count, some beds have suffered a 
depletion of almost 80 per cent. In one bed, which contains 45,000 bushels, 
over 50 per cent of the oysters have been killed. It is a very serious problem. 
Between pollution and the oyster drill the oystermen are greatly worried. 
The biological work so far consists of a preliminary survey of the situation 
in Chesapeake Bay and the neighboring rivers. The work has only just been 
started, and I have not enough data from which to derive any conclusion. I 
can say only that the work is in progress and that something can be learned 
from this work already. The survey includes the following factors: The 
abundance of the drills; whether or not egg cases are present; the salinity ; 
and whether or not any oysters have been killed in that area. Of course, 
some observations are not very accurate—for instance, the presence of egg 
cases. I do not know whether the eggs were put there by the drill themselves 
or whether the egg cases were carried there from other areas. 
Salinity is a very important factor. If you talk to the oystermen, they say: 
“What we want is about two weeks of good hard rain that will freshen the 
waters.” It is believed that this would so reduce the salinity as to kill 
the drills. 
Experiments on migration were attempted, but before I say anything about 
this I want to say something about the reactions of the organism within the 
laboratory. I have collected several hundreds of the organisms and have 
kept them in tanks in the laboratory. These animals were carefully watched 
while in the laboratory, and it was observed that the drills showed no activity. 
They seem to be in a state of hibernation, if there is such a thing. This was 
rather puzzling at first, and still is. This condition was thought to be due to 
the temperature of the laboratory. The running sea water was preheated 
by means of a small kerosene lamp. In that way I raised the temperature, 
but the organisms still refused to show activity. I then tried to see whether 
starved “drills” would respond to oyster and clam meals. No responses were 
