1912] Ritter: The Marine Biological Station of San Diego — 207 
habit formation, worthy of special notice, is the fact that ‘‘the 
behavior of young specimens is more readily modifiable than 
that of old ones.’’ 
Jennings also makes clear what, in general outline, is his 
position as to the deeper meaning of the facts observed. ‘‘Con- 
versation with investigators,’’ he says, ‘‘leads me to believe that 
a large proportion of them would welcome a distinctly ‘vital’ 
explanation as readily as any other if they could see that it 
helped them in understanding and controlling the activities of 
organisms. But such a view as that of Driesch merely transfers 
the problems to the Entelechy, where they are less attackable than 
before.’’ On the other hand, ‘‘Investigators may hold with 
Driesch, as the present writer does, that most of the simple 
chemical and physical explanations that have recently been given 
are superficial and quite inadequate to account for the regulatory 
activities of organisms.’’ We are not, he thinks, obliged to enroll 
under either flag, but ‘‘can hold, in preference to either of these 
views, that our present analysis is incomplete, and that there will 
be something for investigators to work out in these fields during 
the next ten thousand years or so.”’ 
Several researches carried on at the station have been the 
basis, wholly or partly, of memoirs that cannot be claimed as part 
of the station’s output, since nothing more was contributed to the 
work than granting to the investigators the privilege of occupy- 
ing the laboratory and using some of its appliances. 
Under this head come papers by Mr. W. C. Adler-Meresch- 
kowsky of Russia, on sessile diatomes; by Miss Sarah P. Monks 
of Los Angeles, on variation and the self-amputation and re- 
growth of the arms of the starfish Linkia columbiae; by Pro- 
fessor W. R. Coe of Yale University, on the nemertians of the 
region; by Professor T. D. A. Cockerell of Colorado College, on 
the opisthobranch molluses; by Professor T. H. Morgan of 
Columbia University, on the problem of self-fertilization in the 
ascidian Cione intestinalis; by Dr. A. J. Carlson of the Univer- 
sity of Chicago, on the electrical stimulation of the heart in 
several marine invertebrates; two reports by Professor C. C. 
Nutting of Iowa University, on aleyonarian polyps for the United 
States Bureau of Fisheries; one or more papers by Mr. M. B. 
