252 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIX. No. 476, 



ing Survey of Vineyard Sound' (see 

 above); (3) 'A Statistical Study of Fun- 

 dulus majalis with a view to the deter- 

 mination of selective characters.' During 

 the preceding summer large numbers of 

 this fish were placed in aquaria from which 

 the water was turned oS. When about 

 half had died, the living and the dead, i. e., 

 the survivors and non-survivors, were pre- 

 served. This year, nearly a thousand of 

 these fish were carefully measured by two 

 assistants, Messrs. C. R. Metcalf and W. 

 H. Curtiss. Nine measurements were 

 made for each fish. The rather formidable 

 task of making the desired computations 

 from these figures has scarcely been com- 

 menced, but enough has been done to show 

 the existence of certain measurable char- 

 acters of selective value. 



Millett T. Thompson, Ph.D., instructor 

 in zoology, Collegiate Department, Clark 

 University: (1) 'Crustacean Metamor- 

 phosis'; (2) 'Studies of the Head and 

 Alimentary Canal of Diptera.' 



Rodney H. True, Ph.D., physiologist of 

 Bureau of Plant Industry: 'Artificial Sea 

 Waters as tested in Aquaria' (assisted by 

 Mr. W. 0. Richtman). At the suggestion 

 of Mr. W. De C. Ravenel, representative of 

 the Bureau of Fisheries at the St. Louis 

 Exposition, experiments were made under 

 the authority of the Secretary of Agricul- 

 ture, and of the Commissioner of Fisheries 

 in order to determine, if possible, in how 

 far it may be practicable to make artificial 

 sea water, capable of sustaining marine 

 plant and animal life. 



Experiments were made with artificial 

 sea water prepared in two ways: (1) By 

 dissolving in distilled water the complete 

 salts of the sea, obtained by evaporation; 

 (2) by dissolving in distilled water chem- 

 ically prepared salts in proportions deter- 

 mined by analysis. The Challenger anal- 

 yses by Dittmar were used. Aquaria were 



provided with artificial waters prepared ac- 

 cording to each of these methods and with 

 sea water dipped up from the current at 

 the end of the wharf at the Woods Hole 

 station. Two sets of such aquaria were 

 prepared: (1) Standing aquaria kept at 

 constant salt content by the addition of 

 fresh water; (2) aquaria through which a 

 small stream of water was kept flowing, 

 providing thereby a system of closed cir- 

 culation. 



Aquaria thus prepared were stocked 

 with both plant and animal life ; the plants 

 most used being green forms common at 

 Woods Hole : Cladophora, Enteromorpha, 

 Viva and Aghardiella tenera. Many types 

 of animal life were studied, including, es- 

 pecially, sea-anemones (Metridium) , star- 

 fish (Asterias), medusas (Gonionemus) , 

 squid (LoUgo) and fish (silversides, scup, 

 pipe-fish, etc.). 



The general result may be summed up 

 as follows : Sea-anemones seemed to flourish 

 during the period under observation in all 

 media. Star-fish survived and behaved 

 normally in the water made from evapo- 

 rated sea salt, in cases, however, showing 

 symptoms of injury in the synthetic solu- 

 tion. Gonionemus survived for several 

 weeks in both solutions, but appeared to 

 suffer from other forms of life with which 

 it came in contact. The squid could 

 not be made to survive for more than a 

 few days in any medium, artificial or 

 natural. They died in the synthetic solu- 

 tion in less than ten minutes with violent 

 symptoms; they survived in the other arti- 

 ficial solution as long as in the natural sea 

 water. Fish seemed in all cases to live as 

 well in the artificial solution as in the 

 natural, including delicate forms, like 

 Menidia. Several other forms of fish and 

 invertebrates were tested in various ways, 

 with the general result that the artificial 

 solution made from the salt obtained by 

 evaporation permitted survival to a degree 



