March 2, 191 1] 



NATURE 



29 



In collaboration with Prof. Eilswortli Huntington, the 

 director has begun a general climatological study of the 

 region about Tucson, giving special attention to the factors 

 and effects of the Santa Cruz and Asuncion river systems. 

 Dr. Cannon has given attention especially to his elaborate 

 investigation of the root systems and habits of desert 

 plants. For the purpose of extending the range of his 

 studies in this fundamental subject, he visited the Sahara 

 Desert, and will spend most of the year in that advant- 

 ageous field for both comparative and direct observations. 

 Dr. Shreve, while occupied with the more general problem 

 of the relation of plants to climate in the United States, 

 has also carried on special investigations of the vital 

 statistics of plants in the vicinity of the desert labora- 

 tory, of the vegetation in the Santa Catalina Mountains, 

 and of the physiological characteristics of the lace-fern 

 family of plants. Observations on the phenomena pre- 

 sented in the drying up of Salton Sea, and especially on 

 the influx of vegetation over the bared strands and islands 

 of this slowly retreating body of water, have been con- 

 tinued during the year. 



So many converging lines of fruitful research are now 

 being pursued by the Department of Experimental Evolu- 

 tion that it is difificult to summarise fitly its current pro- 

 gress. From the abstract scientific point of view, the 

 most interesting feature of this work is found in the 

 introduction of statistical and other quantitative methods, 

 whereby biology is now passing from the first to the next 

 higher stage in the development of a science. From the 

 more popular points of view, the work in question is of 

 special interest by reason of its bearing on the economics 

 of plant and animal breeding, and by reason of the light 

 it is certain to shed on the laws of human heredity. 



The principal steps which have been necessary, and in 

 large degree preliminary in the development of the work 

 of the Geophysical Laboratory, are four in number, 

 namely, provision for correct temperature determinations 

 over the entire range involved in the processes of rock 

 formation ; provision for like determinations of the 

 chemical reactions of these processes ; provision for precise 

 microscopic, optical, and crystallographic measurements ; 

 and provision for the quantitative applications of high 

 pressures to rock masses and rock constituents. In sup- 

 plying the desiderata just indicated for its own special 

 work, the laboratory has already achieved results of prime 

 Importance also to many other fields of physical and 

 chemical science. Thus, two contributions of great import 

 to general physics and chemistry have been brought out 

 during the past year. The first of thes- is a determinate 

 extension of the scale of temperature measures from about 

 300° C. to about 1600° C. This is a fitting supplement 

 to the classic work on thermometry begun more than thirty 

 years ago under the auspices of the International Bureau 

 of_ Weights and Measures. It must take rank, in fact, 

 with the fundamental advances in the technique of thermo- 

 metry. The other contribution is a determination of the 

 system of compounds which may arise in combinations of 

 the three most important oxides entering into the com- 

 position of rocks, namely, silica, lime, and alumina. This 

 system is of special economic interest, since it includes, 

 among many other compounds, the hitherto much studied 

 but baffling Portland cement. The complexity of the 

 investigations required to analyse this system is indicated 

 by the facts that it involves the interaction of fourteen 

 minerals and the formation of sixteen ternary eutectics, or 

 substances the melting points of which are lower than 

 those of the primary constituents. 



Two emergencies seriously affecting the Department of 

 Marine Biology, and calling for prompt action, have arisen 

 during the year. One is due partly to the gradual 

 abandonment by the U.S. Navy of the supply depot and 

 wireless station at Tortugas, where the department's 

 laboratory is situated, thus rendering communication 

 between Key West and the laborator}' less certain and 

 frequent than hitherto. The curtailment of this source of 

 aid generously extended by the Navy to the laboratory 

 during the past six years lias forced upon the department 

 the necessity of providing better independent transportation 

 than that afforded by its best boat, the Physalia. .Accord- 

 ingly, plans and specifications for a 70-foot twin-smnv 

 boat were prepared during the summer, and on authorisa- 

 tion by the executive committee, a contract for the con- 

 NO. 2157, VOL. 861 



struction of this proposed vessel was let, with the expecta- 

 tion that the contract will be completed in July next. The 

 other emergency arises from the damage to the laboratory 

 caused by the hurricane of October 14-18, 1910. The 

 extent of this damage is not definitely known at present, 

 but steps have been taken to get trustworthy details at the 

 earliest practicable date, so that estimates of the expense 

 required to restore the building may be ready for sub- 

 mission to the Board of Trustees before their next meet- 

 ing. It is gratifying to note that the oppnartunities afforded 

 for intensive research by the laboratory are so highly 

 appreciated that applications for its privileges are already 

 more numerous than can be granted. 



Capital progress has been made during the year in the 

 large and exacting undertaking which the Department of 

 Meridian Astrometry has so successfully started. Work at 

 the observatory in Argentina has gone forward at an un- 

 precedented rate, and with such a degree of thoroughness 

 and completeness as to give assurances that this part of 

 the enterprise will be completed within the next year. 

 While the supplementary observations of the positions of 

 the stars are going forward in the southern hemisphere, 

 arrangements for tlie final computations of these positions 

 are proceeding at the Dudley Observatory ; for the formid- 

 able task of observation must be followed by a still more 

 formidable task of computation. Preliminary to the grand 

 catalogue of stellar positions projected by the department, 

 there has been issued by the institution during the past 

 year, as Publication No. 115, a catalogue of 6188 stars for 

 the epoch 1900. 



Although the Nutrition Laboratory has been occupied 

 less than two years, and is not yet fully equipped, it has 

 already produced contributions of fundamental importance 

 to our knowledge of the chemistry, physics, physiology, 

 and pathology of nutrition. Its experience, like that of 

 all the laboratories of the institution, affords an impressive 

 demonstration of the productivity attainable by concen- 

 trated effort along determinate lines of research. Con- 

 struction and installation of additional equipment, the 

 prosecution of investigations, and the publication of results 

 have gone forward simultaneously during the year. One 

 new calorimeter has been completed, another partly con- 

 structed, and various auxiliary apparatus for use with 

 these and the earlier equipments have been supplied. 

 Similarly, respiration apparatus for men, respiration 

 apparatus for dogs, and man}' improvements in the calori- 

 meter section of the laboratory have been made. Several 

 pieces of apparatus have been acquired also by purchase 

 abroad, and the efficiency of the machine shop has been 

 improved by the addition of a precision lathe. 



The work of the Solar Observatory is now so extensive 

 and so varied that it is somewhat difficult to summarise 

 even in its salient aspects. In addition to the observatory 

 proper, with its four principal telescopes and much 

 auxiliary equipment on Mount Wilson, there are the 

 physical laboratory and the instrument shops at Pasadena, 

 along with special divisions devoted to the work of com- 

 putations and construction respectively. By way of equip- 

 ment, several large pieces of apparatus for the new tower 

 telescope, for the 60-inch telescope, and for the loo-inch 

 grinding machine have been made at the shops. The 

 towers for the new 150-foot tower telescope, begun a year 

 ago, are now finished, along with the well, 75 feet deep 

 in the rock below, which forms a part of the telescope 

 tube of this novel instrument, now essentially complete 

 except for its spectroscopic attachments, still under con- 

 struction at the shops. Some preliminary trials made 

 recently with this instrument indicate that it will fulfil the 

 sanguine expectations entertained in respect to its capacity. 



The more striking events of the year in the Department 

 of Terrestrial Magnetism refer, naturally, to the non- 

 magnetic ship (\init\^ie, which was off on her first cruise 

 at the close of the previous fiscal year. She was then at 

 Falmouth, England, where her determinations of the mag- 

 netic elements were compared with in(lep(>ndent determina- 

 tion made at tlie permanent magnrtic ■iili'^iM-X'atory of that 

 port. She proceeded th(Mic(>, November 0, lOOQ, to 

 Funchal, Madeira, thence to Hamilton, Bermud.i, .mil 

 thence, under tempestuous conditions which proved h< i- 

 seaworthiness, to Brooklxn, N.^'., where she arrived 

 l-"el)ruar\- 17, 1910. Ib-n^ sln' h.id Ii.t copper sheathing 

 • applied by the constructors, as required by their contract. 



