170 
this time considerable abundance over an un- 
usually extensive range. Also birds with the 
greatest development of centripetal migration, 
though often exceedingly abundant, are per- 
haps less resistant than others. Of the shore 
birds which formerly thronged our coast, the 
greater yellowless, whose summer and winter 
ranges were not so widely separated, has held 
out best against the inroads of gunners, while 
the Eskimo curlew and golden plover with the 
longest migration routes, have suffered most 
severely. 
The above aspect of the situation may be of 
interest to the student of fluctuating popula- 
tion and political complications arising there- 
from as well as to the student of bird migra- 
tion. The fact seems to be that in nature a 
species adjusted to maintain its numbers con- 
stant even though comparatively small, is in a 
more advantageous position than one in which 
there is a rapid increase of numbers necessita- 
ting migrations beyond the capabilities of the 
individuals. 
J. T. NicHous 
New York City 
QUOTATIONS 
THE ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATION 
THE Rockefeller Foundation in New York 
is a conspicuous example of modern philan- 
thropie effort. Owing its existence and its 
maintenance to the enlightened liberality of 
Mr. John D. Rockefeller, it is conducted on 
business lines without the appeals to public 
benevolence which, in the absence of state en- 
dowment, are generally necessary to procure 
the funds required for the successful prosecu- 
tion of charitablé enterprises. A review of the 
work done by the foundation in 1917 for vari- 
ous purposes connected with the war, and in 
regard to public health and medical education, 
recently issued by the president, Mr. George 
E. Vincent (New York, 1918) states that at 
the end of 1917 the principal fund had a mar- 
ket value of about £21,000,000; the income of 
that fund for the year was £1,430,770. To this 
were added a balance carried over from 1916, a 
gift by Mr. Rockefeller of £1,100,000, and the 
sum of £1,000,000 voted by the trustees from 
SCIENCE 
[N. S. Von. XLVIII. No. 1233 
the principal fund. The cash balance carried 
forward into the year 1918 was £23,325,809, 
but all except £254,267 of this amount will be 
needed to meet appropriations and pledges for 
the next fiscal year. The foundation is at 
present devoting by far the greater part of its 
available resources to the support of war work. 
When the United States joined in the great 
struggle the foundation placed a large sum at 
the disposal of the American Red Cross, which 
has undertaken comprehensive schemes of re- 
lief for the allied armies and the civilian popu- 
lation: of the invaded countries. The only 
work which it is now directly administering in 
Europe is an antituberculosis campaign in 
France. The American government from the 
first insisted that the training camps were to 
be regarded as educational institutions. Off- 
cial commissions and national and local so- 
cieties worked together in providing within 
and outside camps comfort, recreation, social 
entertainment, educational opportunities, and 
moral safeguards for the troops. To nearly 
all the units that make up this vast coopera- 
tion the foundation has given sums amounting 
in the aggregate to £900,000. In 1917 a port- 
able military base hospital was erected in the 
grounds of the Rockefeller Institute for Med- 
ical Research, embodying the features which 
British and French experience has proved to 
be essential. In this hospital the Carrel-Dakin 
method of sterilizing wounds is being demon- 
strated. To the hospital and the laboratories 
medical officers of the army and navy are being 
sent for study and experience. The founda- 
tion has undertaken the making of serums 
and their distribution to government hospitals. 
Funds are being provided to help the Surgeon- 
General in engaging specialists for the treat- 
ment and hospital care of nervous and mental 
diseases due to the war. Contributions were 
also made for the after-care of the victims of 
infantile paralysis in the epidemic in New 
York in 1916. In 1915 the foundation offered 
to bear the cost of establishing and maintain- 
ing as a part of Johns Hopkins Hospital a 
school of hygiene and public health. During 
1917-18 a staff was recruited and lines of work 
laid down. Dr. William H. Welch resigned 
