92 Jl^ 100 YEARS EXPLORING LIFE, 1888-1988 



at Johns Hopkins in the 1890s. Overall; a more advanced group of dedicated 

 researchers come today. 



The late night gathering around the bunsen burners to cook clams, 

 lobsters, crabs, and occasionally even the ubiquitous snails is more likely to 

 begin with a trip to the fish market or the supply department than to the 

 beach, as it used to be. Strict regulation of marine fauna as well as laboratory 

 specialization has dictated that. But that regulation has been stimulated by 

 ecological and embryological research carried out at the MBL and other 

 marine laboratories. Times change. Details change, but students do still 

 come to the MBL for their courses vvdth the same eagerness that they always 

 have. If there is sometimes less lighthearted fun and more dedication in 

 their work here, that reflects the changes of science and of society as well. 



Administrators 



To the students involved today in their own research and coursework, it is 

 not always obvious who the leaders are. The MBL has a scientific director 

 who organizes courses and laboratories, but that is no longer sufficient. 

 Now a full team of administrators has filled in, doing jobs that either did not 

 exist in earlier times or that the director himself carried out. Conklin once 

 remarked that his role as chairman of the biology department at Princeton 

 for decades was not particularly difficult; he just borrowed a secretary one 

 afternoon a week and polished off all the business. Whitman never even had 

 a secretary at the MBL, much to the regret of those who had to read his 

 rather difficult handwriting and his undated letters. In those days the 

 trustees had to approve all financial decisions, even to spend as little as $1.98 

 for postage or $3.04 for alcohol (and much administrative effort seems to 

 have gone into acquiring alcohol until World War II, not so readily available 

 in pure form then as it now is). Today, we have a group of business 

 managers of various sorts to run the laboratory. Some are required to 

 guarantee conformity to legal requirements regulating animal care, scuba 

 activity, liability coverages, and such. Others keep up vvdth the expanding 

 physical plant, increasing course demands, sophisticated equipment needs, 

 or complicated financial arrangements. This complexity makes it harder to 

 tell just who is in charge, though the scientists, in the form of a corporation, 

 still officially hold control. 



For a long period until he retired in 1986, Homer Smith served as 

 business manager of the MBL. As the only major year-round employee, he 

 must have appeared to tlie public as "Mr. MBL." In fact, one year when 

 photographers came to tcike the necessary set of pictures to portray the 

 activity of the laboratory, they came in midwinter. They found few scientists 

 at work in their labs, surrounded by the fancy equipment the photogra- 

 phers sought. Only Homer Smith was at work. He was persuaded to play all 



