REPORT OF THE ACTING SECRETARY. 15 



gratifying to state that he rej^orts success in demonstrating the 

 presence at an early period in the embryo of a nervous system far 

 more complicated than was previously believed to exist. In sub- 

 mitting an outline of his investigation, Doctor Paton applied for re- 

 apjjointment for an additional period and his request has been 

 approved for five months, from October 1, 1906, to February 28, 

 1907. A monograph collating the results of the entire research will 

 be published on its completion. 



Mr. W. B. Bell, fellow in zoology in the State University of Iowa, 

 had the use of the Naples table for three months from the 1st of 

 July, 1905. His time was largely occupied in the preparation of 

 embryological material for later stud}^, relative to the hermit crab, 

 Eufagurus pindeauxii Bell. He will rej^ort at a future time upon 

 the results of his investigation. 



Although the table was already occupied by a Smithsonian repre- 

 sentative, Dr. Harold Heath, associate professor in Leland Stanford 

 Junior University, was received at the station for three months from 

 January 15, 1906, and Dr. E. L. Melius, of Baltimore, for the 

 months of January and February, 1906, both being appointees of 

 the Institution. Doctor Heath proposed while at Naples to conduct 

 researches on the development of the ctenophore hydroids and on 

 the body cavity of certain invertebrates. Formal reports, however, 

 have not yet been received from either of these gentlemen. 



Dr. M. M. Metcalf, from 1893 to 1906, professor of biology in the 

 Woman's College of Baltimore, and now professor elect of zoology 

 in Oberlin College, has received the appointment to the Smithsonian 

 table for the months of March and April, 1907. It is Doctor Met- 

 calf's intention to study the early development of the nervous system 

 in the asexual reproduction of Salpa, to make observations upon 

 certain species of the Amceha, and to search for indications of conju- 

 gating flagellispores similar to those noted in a fresh- water species 

 which he has heretofore examined. 



Thanks are again due to Dr. J. S. Billings, Dr. E. B. Wilson, 

 Dr. Theodore Gill, and Dr. C. W. Stiles, who constitute the Naples 

 Table Advisory Committee, for continued prompt and courteous 

 aid in passing upon the qualifications of applicants for the Smith- 

 sonian table at the station. 



The National Museum and the Bureau of American Ethnology 

 of the Institution have carried on numerous biological, geological, 

 and ethnological researches, described elsewhere in this report. Im- 

 portant investigations by the Astrophysical Observatory on the 

 absorption of the solar envelope and on solar radiation have been 

 continued, and will be referred to later. 



