436 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XII. No. 299. 



well-founded belief in the rationality of 

 natural processes asserts the possibility of 

 this, while admitting that the intimate de- 

 tails of atomic constitution are beyond our 

 scrutiny and provide plenty of room for 

 processes that transcend finite dynamical 

 correlation. 



Joseph Larmoe. 



INLAND BIOLOGICAL LABOBATOBIES. 



The following informal notes have been 

 received concerning the season's work in 

 various summer laboratories and experi- 

 ment stations : 



Of the research work carried out on the 

 Great Lakes under the auspices of the Uni- 

 ted States Fish Commission, Professor E.eig- 

 hard says : The work has been purely re- 

 search work and it was understood from 

 the start that it should be of a fundamental 

 scientific character rather than directed to- 

 ward the immediate solution of questions 

 of supposed practical importance. 



The funds available have not permitted 

 of carrying on the work for more than two 

 months of each summer. During the sum- 

 mers of 1898 and 1899 it was carried on 

 chiefly at Put in Bay, Ohio, (an island in 

 the western end of Lake Erie, at which 

 there is a hatchery of the Commission). 

 By removing the internal fittings of the 

 hatchery it was temporarily converted into 

 a laboratory for each summer's use. This 

 laboratory has been in every way amply 

 equipped. There is gas and water, a small 

 steamer and a supply of other boats. It is 

 intended that work should begin on the 

 first of July, but owing to delay in appro- 

 priation bills and to other causes it may 

 happen, as it did this year, that no authori- 

 zation for the commencement of the work 

 can be issued until the end of June or even 

 the early part of July. Supplies must then 

 be ordered, arrangements made with work- 

 ers and the hatchery converted into a lab- 

 oratory. The difficulty involved in under- 



taking to do this after the first of July for 

 work which is to continue only two months, 

 led this year to the trial of a different plan. 

 Instead of opening the Put in Bay labora- 

 tory an effort is being made to carry on the 

 work by means of individual investigators 

 or small parties working independently. It 

 is hoped that work carried on in this way 

 can be continued over a longer period, even 

 during a part of the college year. 



The investigations carried on at the lab- 

 oratory (and elsewhere during the present 

 summer) are as follows : 



BOTANICAL WORK. 



1. The AlgcB of Lake Erie. — Dr. Julia W. 

 Snow has been engaged during each of the 

 three seasons and is now engaged in the 

 determination of the algse of the Lake and 

 in working out their life histories by means 

 of cultures. As many of them assume dif- 

 ferent forms under different conditions, it is 

 necessary to cultivate them and no final 

 identifications are possible until the life 

 history of each is known. This is of course 

 a labor of years and involves a considera- 

 tion of the relation of the various algse 

 groups to the nutritive substances contained 

 in the water, that is, it leads into bio-chem- 

 istry. It is expected that results already 

 obtained will be made ready for publication 

 during the coming year. 



2. The larger Aquatic Plants. — During the 

 first season Mr. A. J. Pieters of the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture at Washington under- 

 took a study of the larger aquatic plants 

 with the purpose of determining whether 

 they are wholly dependent on the water for 

 nutrition or partly on the soil. Mr. Piet- 

 ers' results are now in press. He did not 

 get much further than a determination of 

 the various soils present on the Lake bottom 

 and the relation of the plants to them. 

 During the second season and during the 

 present season Mr. R. H. Pond, an assist- 

 ant in Botany at the University, has car- 



