April 11, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



653 



his remarkable work in the production of cili- 

 ated cysts, and other abnormal growths due 

 to artificial stimulation in Pecten and other 

 marine invertebrates led to his being ap- 

 pointed to the Beit fellowship for the study 

 of cancer. 



He was, however, far more than a young 

 man whose ability, training and energy in- 

 spired confidence respecting his ultimate high 

 position in attainment, for he was an English 

 gentleman, simple in manner, generous in 

 spirit ; a charming, brilliant companion, a 

 warm-hearted friend, and above all one whose 

 aim it was to give to the world all that lay 

 within his power to bestow as a servant of the 

 high ideals of civilization. 



Alfred G. Mayee 



FVS SEAL LEGISLATION 

 The following letter has been addressed to 

 members of congress under date of March 31, 

 1913: 



The fur seal legislation of the 62d Congress 

 has been left in very unsatisfactory shape. A 

 treaty was entered into on July 7, 1911, by the 

 United States, Great Britain, Japan and Russia, 

 for the suspension of pelagic sealing for fifteen 

 years. This treaty provides protection for the 

 mother seal on her migration and feeding journeys 

 and guarantees the future prosperity of the herd. 

 The treaty was promptly ratified by the Senate, 

 but in the act of August 24, 1912, designed to 

 give effect to this treaty, was included an amend- 

 ment suspending land sealing — the killing of the 

 superfluous males — for five years. The significant 

 relation of this amendment to the treaty is that 

 the United States agreed to share its land catch 

 with Great Britain and Japan in return for the 

 abandonment by their citizens of the pelagic in- 

 dustry. We are as firmly bound to continue land 

 sealing and share its product as are Great Britain 

 and Japan to prohibit pelagic sealing. Dissatis- 

 faction naturally results from our action. Abro- 

 gation of the treaty would be followed by resump- 

 tion of pelagic sealing, with ultimate destruction 

 of the herd. Even if the treaty be not openly 

 broken, our indifference to our obligations war- 

 rants like indifference on the part of our neigh- 

 bors in enforcing prohibition, leading to illicit 

 open sea sealing. 



The final act of the 62d Congress is not less 

 inimical to the welfare of the herd. This was to 

 cut from the Sundry Civil Bill the appropriation 

 for the maintenance of the government force of 

 agents on the fur seal islands, reducing this force 

 to a single care-taker for each island. This is 

 in effect a notice that we have weakened the land 

 defenses of the herd. It is an invitation to the 

 lawless element, largely present among the pelagic 

 sealers, to raid the islands and attack the herd 

 upon its breeding haunts. The natives on the 

 islands are effective defenders only under intel- 

 ligent and courageous direction. One man can 

 not guard twenty-five miles of shore, for the most 

 part difficult of access through absence of roads 

 and means of transportation. It will not be for- 

 gotten that in 1906 Japanese sealers landed upon 

 the rookeries in spite of the active revenue patrol, 

 and were only prevented from inflicting heavy 

 damage upon the herd by the prompt and cour- 

 ageous defense of the resident agents and the 

 natives, a dozen or more of the raiders being 

 killed before the attacks were finally warded off. 

 Reduced to a single care-taker on each island — 

 they are forty miles apart — the island force can 

 make no adequate defense. 



The property interests thus being trifled with 

 are of great value, capable of yielding a land 

 catch in 1913 worth not less than $100,000, and 

 this income will grow steadily. To maintain the 

 herd requires protection for its breeding stock on 

 the high seas and upon the breeding grounds. 

 The treaty of July 7, 1911, guarantees the first, 

 the island guards, the second. It is the duty of 

 the 63d Congress to repeal the provision of the 

 law of August 24, 1912, suspending land sealing, 

 and to restore to the appropriation bills the sum 

 necessary to maintain intact the force for island 

 defense. 



Respectfully submitted, 



David Starr Jordan, Commissioner 



in Charge of Investigations, 1896-7. 



George Archibald Clark, Secretary 



of Commission, 1896-7, 



Special Investigator 1909 and 1912. 



THE EUGENICS EECOED OFFICE 

 The Eugenics Record Office, which was es- 

 tablished at Cold Spring Harbor, Long Is- 

 land, in October, 1910, by Mrs. E. H. Harri- 

 man and which has ever since been active in 

 this field, with the additional assistance of Mr. 



