232 



SCIENCE 



[N. a Vol. XXXIX. No. 998 



materials for American history in Paris 

 archives, in the work of Professor Hill in 

 Spanish archives, and in the corresponding 

 work of Professor Faust in Switzerland 

 and in Austria. Under the head of textual 

 documents the director refers in some de- 

 tail to progress in the preparation of the 

 projected collections of "Letters of Dele- 

 gates to the Continental Congress," of 

 "European Treaties Bearing on United 

 States History," of "Proceedings and De- 

 bates of Parliament Respecting North 

 America, 1585 to 1783, ' ' and to a prelimin- 

 ary report on papers of the Royal African 

 'Company in the Public Records Office of 

 ILondon. 



Attention is especially invited to the 

 director's interesting review of the work 

 of the department during the first decade 

 of its existence, completed with this fiscal 

 year. Some idea of the extent of this work 

 may be gained from the list of depart- 

 mental publications cited, the number of 

 these being 17, with an aggregate of over 

 5,000 pages; while the bulky correspon- 

 dence of the institution as a whole is in 

 some degree indicated by the fact that this 

 department records an aggregate of up- 

 wards of 20,000 letters in its decennial 

 inventory. 



DEPARTMENT OP MARINE BIOLOGY 



When the laboratory of this department 

 was established on Loggerhead Key, Dry 

 Tortugas, Florida, now nearly ten years 

 ago, Fort Jefferson, on an adjacent island, 

 was an important base station of the United 

 States navy and transportation to and 

 from points on the Gulf coast was a matter 

 of daily occurrence. In the meantime, 

 however, this station has steadily dimin- 

 ished in importance and is now virtually 

 abandoned as a naval base. This change 

 of conditions shifts the burden of trans- 

 portation between the laboratory and the 



nearest port. Key West, about thirty miles 

 distant, wholly upon the department; and 

 the resulting increased cost and inconveni- 

 ence have led the director to recommend 

 a gradual transfer of his laboratory and 

 aeti^dties to a more favorable site. Pre- 

 liminary investigations indicate that such 

 a site may be had in Jamaica, where health 

 conditions and transportation facilities 

 have been much improved in recent years, 

 where the cost of labor and subsistence is 

 low, and where such an international scope 

 as best benefits marine biology could be 

 readily developed. It may be anticipated 

 that definite plans for an advantageous 

 change of site will be matured during the 

 coming year and ready for submission to 

 the board of trustees in December, 1914. 



The department has suffered serious loss 

 during the year in the untimely death of 

 a remarkably able research associate, 

 George Harold Drew. It has met with a 

 reverse also in the temporary illness of an- 

 other research associate. Dr. T. Wayland 

 Vaughan. Drew and Vaughan had under 

 way important investigations, originating 

 at Tortugas, for the furtherance of which 

 the departmental expedition of this year 

 to Torres Straits was largely planned and 

 authorized. Drew had made the discovery 

 at Tortugas that the so-called coral mud 

 in that vicinity is not due to corals, but 

 has been precipitated through the chemical 

 agency of a bacillus abundant in the sur- 

 face waters of the tropical Atlantic. 

 Vaughan, on the other hand, had made 

 quantitative studies of the growths of coral 

 organisms at Tortugas and of the closely 

 correlated deposits or reefs. Jointly their 

 investigations promised a solution of the 

 long-vexed problem of the origin of such 

 reefs and it was hoped that the expedition 

 to Torres Straits and Great Barrier Reef 

 would enable them to secure the additional 

 data essential to final proof. In spite of 



