SECRETARY’S REPORT 139 
as adding much to the laboratory’s knowledge of the effects of tropical 
exposure on these various types of plywoods. A comprehensive report 
on these results was prepared. 
Dr. Edna Robbins, biology teacher at the Mary C. Wheeler School 
for Girls, Providence, R. I., spent a short time on the island to get 
acquainted with the tropical flora and certain of the invertebrates, 
and to add to her knowledge of environmental factors. 
Dr. A. Brazier Howell, formerly of Johns Hopkins University, now 
retired, spent 10 days on the island in December, accompanied by Mrs. 
Howell, for the purpose of noting the changes that have taken place 
since he studied here 19 years ago. “A period of this duration can 
have practically no effect on a tropical rain forest undespoiled by man, 
and undoubtedly the habitat under which the fauna exists at this 
locality is now as nearly identical in comparison with two decades ago 
as it can be. But it is probable that the fauna is now in a more stable 
state than it was then. As time passes the absence of human inter- 
ference, coupled with the segregation essential in an island habitat, re- 
sults in an adjustment in the interrelationship of the elements of the 
fauna that is as near natural as can possibly be.” 
Dr. Marshall H. Stone, formerly of Harvard, and now with the 
Department of Mathematics of the University of Chicago, accom- 
panied by Mrs. Stone, likewise spent a short time on the island, with 
broad interests in fauna and flora. 
Dr. Nevin S. Scrimshaw, of the University of Rochester Medical 
School, returned to the island for a brief visit, to make a survey of 
the fresh-water fishes in connection with his previous studies there 
on this subject. 
John Sellman, of the Sayville High School, New York, spent a 
short time on the island studying the animal life, in order to be able 
to give first-hand knowledge of the life in the American humid Tropics 
to his students. He has published several interesting articles on his 
observations. 
H. C. Secrest, entomologist in the Division of Forest Insect Investi- 
gations of the Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine, came in 
order to make examinations of the several thousand soil-poison tests 
and treated-wood series installed by Kowal, Dews, and Johnson, and 
reported upon in the 1947 report. The results of these experiments 
are most interesting, but no conclusions are being announced as yet. 
Fred W. Gottschalk and R. B. Putnam, of the American Lumber 
& Treating Co., of Chicago, Ill., came in order to get first-hand in- 
formation on the very large series of termite tests being conducted by 
the Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine. These tests, begun 
nearly a quarter of a century ago, are, in fact, a history of wood 
preservation. 
