March 7, 1919] 



SCIENCE 



231 



plicants should be between the ages of twenty- 

 five and thirty-five. All applications must be 

 accompanied by original or certified copies of 

 testimonials, schedule of experience, list of 

 research work and photograph. It is ex- 

 I)ected that the director will take duty, Octo- 

 ber 1, 1919. The first assistant director shall 

 be not over thirty-five years of age, and will 

 be expected to devote his entire time to the 

 work of the institute as directed by the board 

 and under the instruction of the director. He 

 will have the management of the institution 

 in the absence of the director, will give such 

 assistance as may be prescribed to the med- 

 ical stafi or other officers of the Melbourne 

 Hospital in postmortem work and clinical 

 pathology and bacteriology, and will take such 

 part as may be prescribed in the instruction 

 of medical students in laboratory work and in 

 postgraduate instruction. He holds office for 

 five years and is eligible for reappointment. 

 His salary will be $3,000 a year. 



THE BRITISH GUIANA RESEARCH STATION OF 

 THE NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



In his introduction to the volume " Trop- 

 ical Wild Life in British Guiana " Colonel 

 Theodore Roosevelt said : " The establishment 

 of a Tropical Eesearch Station in British 

 Guiana by the New York Zoological Society 

 marks the beginning of a wholly new type 

 of biological work, capable of literally illimit- 

 able expansion. It provides for intensive 

 study, in the open field of the teeming animal 

 life of the tropics." 



Almost every member of the staff of this 

 station has been serving in the American 

 army, and now at the conclusion of the war, 

 an expedition is about to start for British 

 Guiana to resume scientific investigation. 

 The financial support necessary for this un- 

 dertaking has been provided by the New York 

 Zoological Society through the generosity of 

 five members of the board of managers, Col. 

 Anthony E. Kuser, C. Ledyard Blair, Andrew 

 Carnegie, George J. Gould, and A. Barton 

 Hepburn, and the requisite leave of absence 

 has been granted to the staff in the service of 

 the society. 



On February 2G three of the staff sailed for 

 the south, William Beebe, director, Alfred 

 Emerson, research assistant, and John Tee- 

 Van, artist and preparateur. Their outfit will 

 include the most complete laboratory equip- 

 ment ever taken to the tropics, and the sta- 

 tion will be reopened under most auspicious 

 circumstances at Katabo, its permanent head- 

 quarters. This is a most beautiful site, 

 shaded with himdred foot bamboos, at the 

 very edge of the jungle, and directly at the 

 jimction of two great rivers, the Mazaruni 

 and the Cuyimi. Here several bungalows and 

 a large laboratory await occupancy, and here 

 it is hoi)ed that many of our American scien- 

 tific men may find a stimulating field for the 

 prosecution of their particular lines of re- 

 search. 



WTiile each member of the regular staff 

 will imdertake some special investigation, yet 

 it is the intention of the director that all 

 will unite in some definite ecological study 

 of the interrelations of certain groups of 

 organisms, in the hope of gaining some in- 

 sight into more general problems of evolution, 

 of adaptation, of survival. The results of all 

 the studies will be published by the New York 

 Zoological Society in the second volume of 

 "Tropical Wild Life." 



Three years ago Colonel Theodore Roosevelt 

 visited the Station and wrote of its functions 

 and activities. This year Professor Henry 

 Fairfield Osborn, president of the Zoological 

 Society and of the American Museum, accom- 

 panies the expedition and will si^end several 

 weeks in observing the unique conditions 

 under which the undertaking carried on, and 

 will advise as to its extension and future. 



Professor William Morton Wheeler, of the 

 Bussey Institution, Harvard University, and 

 Professor Ulric Dahlgren, of Princeton Uni- 

 versity, and Professor Alfred Reese, of the 

 University of West Virginia, will join the 

 station this year, for observations on ants, 

 electric fishes and crocodiles, respectively. 

 Director N. L. Britton, of the New York Bo- 

 tanical Garden, is planning a complete survey 

 of the forests. 



