Makch 6, 1908] 



SCIENCE 



371 



perienee in conducting the affairs of the 

 laboratory, a committee of the board of 

 trustees prepared and sent out a circular 

 letter requesting the cooperation of the 

 biological departments of our colleges and 

 universities in the maintenance of the 

 Marine Biological Laboratory. The form 

 of cooperation suggested was that of sub- 

 scription for students' tables or research 

 rooms, the former at $50 each and the 

 latter at $100 each for the season. In this 

 way the laboratory anticipated the need of 

 biological departments for marine facilities 

 both in instruction and in research. 



The response was unexpectedly general 

 and prompt ; the following institutions sub- 

 scribed at once: Columbia, Brown, The 

 Missouri Botanical Garden, Williams, Chi- 

 cago, Massachusetts Institute of Technol- 

 ogy, Rochester, Bryn Mawr, Mount 

 Holyoke, Vassar, Wellesley, Cincinnati, 

 Miami and Northwestern. The majority of 

 these institutions have continued their sub- 

 scriptions up to the present time. Others 

 have since come in, some sporadically, 

 others continuously. Last year the num- 

 ber of subscribing institutions was 17. 

 There has not, however, been considerable 

 gTowth in this respect; and this is perhaps 

 partly due to the fact that the laboratory 

 has rarely refused a free working place 

 to competent applicants, unless space was 

 lacking. 



It is clear that an institution may secure 

 for its investigators by this form of co- 

 operation the best of facilities for marine 

 work at a cost many times less than would 

 be required on an independent basis, with 

 the added advantage of association with 

 representative investigators from other 

 laboratories. At the same time such an 

 institution is aiding to support an organiza- 

 tion that supplies one of the most general 

 needs of American biology. 



Special forms of cooperation with insti- 



tutions are entered into from time to time. 

 Relations with the Woods Holl Station of 

 the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries have always 

 been mutually helpful. The laboratory 

 also exchanges investigators' tables with 

 the biological stations of Canada and de- 

 sires to enter into similar relations with 

 other marine laboratories. For three years 

 the laboratory furnished working places 

 for twenty appointees of the Carnegie In- 

 stitution and this relation was a great aid 

 to the Marine Biological Laboratory at a 

 critical juncture of affairs, and furnished 

 a permanent stimulus and incentive to the 

 prosecution of its work. 



It is very desirable that such cooperative 

 relations with other institutions should be 

 extended and strengthened ; and it is prob- 

 able that this will take place in the near 

 future. The maintenance of such relations 

 implies that they shall be mutually advan- 

 tageous. I believe that this has been dem- 

 onstrated, and that, in proportion as this 

 is realized and the spirit of research in- 

 creases in our institutions, such coopera- 

 tive relations are bound to grow. The 

 principle of cooperation does not mean that 

 all shall do the same amount, but that all 

 shall enter into it in the same spirit and 

 do according to their means and oppor- 

 tunities. 



A third fundamental form of coopera- 

 tion is that of and with the various sub- 

 divisions of biological inquiry. Four de- 

 partments are formally organized in the 

 Marine Biological Laboratory ; in the order 

 of their establishment they are: zoology, 

 botany, embryology and physiology. These 

 are, of course, broad divisions and their 

 organization as departments does not mean 

 that other subjects are excluded; indeed, 

 the laboratory welcomes any biologist with 

 a problem in the solution of which the 

 facilities or fellowship of the organization 

 may aid. There has been a good deal of 



