Febeuakt 13, 1914] 



SCIENCE 



233 



these adversities, however, the director and 

 four associates sailed from San Francisco 

 for Sidney, Australia, on July 23, 1913, 

 and arrived at Torres Straits early in 

 September. When last heard from, in 

 September, the party was reported all well 

 on Murray Island. 



The laboratory season at Tortugas ex- 

 tended from April to June, inclusive, and 

 twelve collaborators availed themselves of 

 the facilities afforded for their researches. 

 Summaries of these are given by the di- 

 rector in his current report, while more 

 elaborate accounts are furnished by the 

 investigators themselves in appendices to 

 that report. Two additional volumes of 

 contributions from the Tortugas labora- 

 tory are in press as publications Nos. 182 

 and 183. 



DEPARTMENT OF MERIDIAN ASTROMETRT 



On the death, October 5, 1912, of Pro- 

 fessor Lewis Boss, director of this depart- 

 ment since its establishment in 1906, his 

 son, Mr. Benjamin Boss, long associated 

 with his father in meridian astrometry, 

 was made acting director. Adherence to 

 the original program, so indispensable to 

 the formidable enterprise this department 

 has under way, is thus assured. The ex- 

 tensive computations essential in the deri- 

 vation of the great number of stellar posi- 

 tions observed at the temporary observa- 

 tory at San Luis, Argentina, are going 

 forward at a favorable rate, so that the 

 inclusive catalogue of precise positions for 

 stars in both hemispheres may be expected 

 in due time. Some instructive results of 

 these computations, showing the stability 

 of the San Luis meridian mark (mire), 

 the diurnal variation of the clock correc- 

 tions, and the changes of personal equa- 

 tion for day and night observations are 

 given in the report of the acting director. 



As in most lines of fruitful research, the 



work of this department is noteworthy for 

 its by-products, or for contributions it is 

 making to allied lines of inquiry. Obvi- 

 ously, a first requisite to a knowledge of 

 stellar motions lies in precise determina- 

 tions of stellar positions at different epochs. 

 The so-called proper motions of stars are 

 thus brought to light, and from these it is 

 possible to determine also the motion of 

 our solar system. But now comes the sur- 

 prising discovery that these proper mo- 

 tions, hitherto supposed to be of a random 

 character, are of a systematic nature de- 

 pendent in large degree, apparently, on 

 the stage in evolution any individual star 

 has reached and on the group to which it 

 belongs. A new and peculiarly fascinating 

 field is thus opened to astronomers of all 

 kinds, and the by-products referred to 

 seem destined to prove not less important 

 than its primary object in positional astron- 

 omy. The world of astronomy, however, is 

 anxiously awaiting the attainment of this 

 object, as is well shown by the fact that the 

 preliminary catalogue issued by the depart- 

 ment three years ago is already out of print. 



THE NUTRITION LABORATORY 



One of the reasons which helped seven 

 years ago to determine the location of this 

 laboratory was found in the expectation 

 that several hospitals would be erected in 

 the near vicinity. This expectation has 

 now been realized by the completion dur- 

 ing the past year of the Peter Bent Brig- 

 ham Hospital, the Collis P. Huntington 

 Memorial Hospital, and of two hospitals 

 for infants and children respectively. The 

 environment and the opportunities for 

 securing pathological subjects as well as 

 clinical cooperation and counsel are there- 

 fore highly favorable for the researches 

 undertaken by this establishment. That it 

 has entered a fruitful field of activity is 

 well attested by the wide interest shown in 



