212 PROCEEDINGS OF THE MALACOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



experience of a life to appreciate. If this course is to continue, 

 let us boldly replace Homo sapiens by Mendax simplex^ and have 

 done with it ! 



In the department of Marine Biology the year has witnessed an 

 exceptional activity at all points of the compass. Our Japanese 

 IViends have described and worked out a new species of Opisthoteuthis 

 {0. depresm),^ and they continue to discover new and remarkable 

 marine organisms.^ Rumours are current of a South Australian Marine 

 Station ; and the attempt which is being made to develop the resources 

 of the West Indies has met with considerable support at the hands 

 of the Zoologists of the Johns Hopkins University, who during the 

 season visited Port Henderson for purposes of systematic study.^ 



As a kindred new departure, the members of the Columbia 

 University, New York, organized a summer expedition to Puget 

 Sound, where a laboratory was equipped, and dredging, plankton 

 collecting, and other modes of investigation were carried out ; and 

 their preliminary report announces, as a leading result,^ the careful 

 study of Scutella and Entoconoha, and the collection of numerous 

 nioUusca, the working out of which will be looked for with intense 

 interest. 



The North Pacific is this year more than ever to the front, and 

 will keep our friends Mr. Edgar Smith and Mr. Sykes busily engaged 

 for some time to come, since Mr. R. C. L. Perkins is still collecting, 

 under the auspices of the Joint Committee of the Royal Society and 

 British Association. More than this, however, for the extension to 

 him of substantial support by the Trustees of the Bernice P. Bishop 

 Museum in Honolulu, has been followed by the welcome announce- 

 ment '^ of a proposal to erect a biological laboratory for the Hawaiian 

 Islands at the princely cost of some £150,000, which Mr. C. R. Bishop 

 would seem willing to defray. The allusion in the preliminary notice 

 to the facilities which Avill be atforded to American and Japanese 

 zoologists is a sure sign of the times ; but we hope that distance will 

 not deter British workers from visiting the locality, as seems to be 

 anticipated. 



At home, all eyes have turned northward, two important events 

 having taken place across the border, viz., the laying of the foundation- 

 stone of a new marine station at Millport on October 18, and the 

 completion and opening of the " Gatty Marine Laboratory " at 

 St. Andrews — the latter wholly, and the former largely, the outcome 

 of voluntary bequest on the part of persons who have lived to 

 appreciate the value of biological investigation. I need but remind you 

 of the pioneer work in marine zoology of Professor W. C. Mcintosh, 



1 I. Ijima and S. Ikeda, Jouru. Coll. Sci. Imp. Uuiv. Japau, vol. viii, p. 323. 



Cf. also Verrill, Amer. Journ. Sci., ser. IV, vol. ii, p. 74. 



2 Cf. Zool. Auz., Bd. ix, p. 249. 



3 Cf. J. E. Duerden, Journ. Instit. Jamaica, vol. ii, p. 268. 

 ■« Cf. Zool. Anz., Bd. xx, p. 14. 



* Cf. Eev. Sci., ser. IV, torn, vi, p. 631. 



