232 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XL. No. 1024 



(6) Exchange of information between the 

 directors concerning the subjects under investi- 

 gation at the respective laboratories, -with the 

 view to prevent duplication of work, but par- 

 ticularly to advantageously supplement at one 

 laboratory work which in some of its phases 

 may be under way at the other. For instance, 

 certain work at the Marine Biological Labora- 

 tory may have economic connections which 

 would not be given much consideration. Prob- 

 ably an investigator at the Fisheries Labora- 

 tory could be assigned to this side of the sub- 

 ject to the mutual advantage of both workers, 

 economy of material and effectiveness of ef- 

 fort. Conversely, while the Fisheries Labora- 

 tory is concerned with investigations more di- 

 rectly related to the fishing industry, there 

 frequently arise in connection with them col- 

 lateral, more abstract, problems which woidd 

 perhaps appeal to investigators at the Marine 

 Biological Laboratory. 



(c) Eeciprocal access to daily collections. 

 It frequently occurs that when no one at a 

 laboratory has an interest in a certain organ- 

 ism, or classes of organisms, the material col- 

 lected is either thrown away or imperfectly 

 cared for. LE when the collections are brought 

 in a competent person from the other labora- 

 tory, and famUiar with its needs, could be 

 given an opportunity to examine the collec- 

 tions, or at least the rejected material, much 

 now wasted might be utilized. 



{d) The effectiveness of the collecting could 

 probably be increased by such cooperation as 

 would prevent duplication in the fields cov- 

 ered. This could be arranged by an under- 

 standing of mutual requirements and the co- 

 operation of the collectors. 



I share the feeling entertained by many 

 others that a new era in American biological 

 science is now dawning; and that, under the 

 inspiration and stimulus afforded by Mr. 

 Crane's noble gift, the day is not far distant 

 when Woods Hole will come to be generally 

 recognized abroad as well as at home as the 

 world's biological Mecca. 



Hugh M. Smith 



TIME SATIOS IN TEE MVOLVTION OF MAM- 

 MALIAN PSYLA. A CONTRIBUTION 

 TO TSE PBOBLEM OF TEE AGE 

 OF TEE EASTS 



Considered as a historic science, geology has 

 not yet solved its first problem. There is as 

 yet no satisfactory way of estimating the age 

 of the earth and the length of geologic periods. 

 The various methods that have been devised to 

 compute it are all subject to such large factors 

 of uncertainty dependent upon questionable 

 assumptions, that the most that can be claimed 

 for them is that they indicate the order of 

 figures which should be assigned as the anti- 

 quity of geologic periods. The relative length 

 of the periods one with another can usually 

 be more definitely gauged. But the transla- 

 tion into years is a matter of wide divergence 

 of opinion and no real proof that any of the 

 results are even approximately correct. 



It is quite true that various estimates have 

 been made by geologists and physicists result- 

 ing in figures which are of the same order of 

 magnitude and in reasonably close agreement, 

 although derived from independent sources. 

 This might be taken as evidence that the age 

 probably lies within these limits. But in fact 

 it does not prove any such thing, for it rests 

 in every case upon the assumption that the 

 activities, whose accumulated results are the 

 measure of the length of time that they have 

 been in action, have proceeded in past times at 

 the same pace as at present. This is not only 

 unproved, there are strong reasons for be- 

 lieving it widely different from the fact. 



There is no occasion to review these methods 

 of computation or to point out other unprova- 

 ble assumptions. Every competent discussion 

 of the subject has sufficiently called attention 

 to them. 



What I have to contribute is the suggestion 

 of a possible measure derived not from in- 

 organic, but from organic evolution. It is ap- 

 proximate indeed, and relative, based like the 

 others upon assumptions which can not be 

 proven. But it is perhaps — ^I dare not say 

 more — ^free or partially free from subjection to 

 the varying intensity of inorganic activities 



