194 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLI. No. 1049 



In addition to tlie work carried on by mem- 

 bers of the departmental staff, various inves- 

 tigations have been pursued by about twenty 

 collaborators, several of whom have been in 

 temporary residence at the Desert Laboratory. 

 Among the more noteworthy publications 

 emanating from the department during the 

 year may be cited, along with the monograph 

 on the Salton Sea referred to above, the in- 

 structive volume by Dr. Forrest Shreve, of 

 the departmental staff, on " A Montane Eain- 

 Forest" (Publication 199 of the institution). 

 Favorable progress has been made by Messrs. 

 Britton and Eose, research associates of the 

 department, in their elaborate investigation 

 of the distribution and relationships of the 

 Cactacese. The facilities of the Desert Labo- 

 ratory have been enlarged during the year by 

 the completion and equipment of a specially 

 designed small building for studies in phyio- 

 chemistry, which has been proved to play a 

 highly significant role in desert life. 



DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS AND SOCIOLOGY 



The work of this department has been con- 

 fined in recent years to the preparation of 

 divisional monographs, as explained in previ- 

 ous reports. Dr. Victor S. Clark, in charge of 

 the division of manufactures, has been able to 

 devote his time exclusively to this work and 

 has been furnished office quarters for this 

 purpose in the administration building at 

 Washington. Other heads of divisions have 

 been able to give half or less time to their divi- 

 sional work, which is thus progressing some- 

 what more favorably than hitherto. It is 

 hoped, therefore, that some of the monographs 

 under way may be ready for publication dur- 

 ing the coming year. Of the comprehensive 

 " Index of Economic Material in the Docu- 

 ments of the States " projected by the depart- 

 ment and prepared under the direction of Miss 

 A. E. Hasse, the volume for New Jersey is 

 now in press. Volumes of this index for 

 eleven different states have already been 

 issued. 



DEPARTMENT OP EXPERIMENTAL EVOLUTION 



The observational, statistical and physical 

 methods applied by this department are con- 

 stantly adding to the sum of facts and of in- 



ductions essential to advances in biological 

 knowledge. The range of application extends 

 from the lowest organisms, like fungi, up to 

 the highest, as typified in the race to which the 

 investigators themselves belong. Thus, during 

 the past year, observations and experiments 

 have been made on mucors, plants, pigeons, 

 poultry and seeds, while the director has con- 

 tinued his fruitful statistical studies in the 

 relatively new field of departures from normal- 

 ity in mankind. The variety of agencies em- 

 ployed in this wide range of inquiry now in- 

 cludes a permanent staff of about twenty 

 members and a physical equipment enlarged 

 during the year by the completion of an addi- 

 tional laboratory and a power-house. Early 

 in the year the facilities of the department 

 were increased by the successful transfer, from 

 Chicago to Cold Spring Harbor, of the remark- 

 able collection of pedigreed pigeons recently 

 acquired by the institution from the estate of 

 Professor 0. 0. Whitman. 



Among the numerous researches of the year 

 to which attention is given in the depart- 

 mental report, there may be cited, as of spe- 

 cial interest, those of the director in human 

 heredity, those of Dr. Blakeslee and Dr. Gort- 

 ner on mucors, those of Dr. Eiddle on the 

 Whitman pigeons, those of Dr. Harris on the 

 characteristics of seeds, and those in cytology 

 by Mr. Metz. It is of particular interest to 

 note that, in all of these, definite, measurable 

 relations are anticipated as attainable, just as 

 such relations are now assumed to be attain- 

 able in the older physical sciences. The di- 

 rector accepted an invitation from the New 

 Zealand government and from the British As- 

 sociation for the Advancement of Science to 

 take part in a series of scientific conferences 

 held in Australasia during the past summer. 

 Dr. Shull, of the departmental staff, spent the 

 year in Berlin preparing his account of the 

 horticultural work of Luther Burbank. The 

 department expresses regret at the loss from 

 its staff of Dr. E. A. Gortner, who has re- 

 signed to accept a position in the University 

 of Minnesota. His abilities as an investiga- 

 tor and his capacity for effective cooperation 

 won high regard from his colleagues. 



