344 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIII. No. IIOS 



acquaint scientific men with the richly varied 

 sea-life of the California coast. 



There will be lectures, conferences and 

 demonstrations every afternoon of the six 

 weeks by members of the scientific staff of the 

 institution on the following subjects (each 

 once weekly). "The Relation of Biology to 

 the Sciences of Man," Professor William E. 

 Eitter, Fridays; "Heredity, Environment and 

 Adaptation," Dr. F. V. Sumner, Thursdays; 

 " Some of the Messages of Marine Biology to 

 Student and Teacher,^' E. L. Michael, Wed- 

 nesdays; "Physical Oceanography, Including 

 Some of Its Eelations to Meteorology," G. F. 

 McEwen, Tuesdays. " Local Coastal Physical 

 Geography " will be a course to be conducted 

 Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings, 

 at 10 o'clock by W. C. Crandall, who as master 

 of the Alexander Agassiz, the institution's sea- 

 going scientific collecting vessel, has wide 

 familiarity with the California coast. The 

 rest of the mornings of every day except Satur- 

 day will be devoted to lectures, laboratory, 

 museum and field work for small groups of 

 students on the characteristic animal and plant 

 life of the ocean waters along the shore of 

 southern California, this work being con- 

 ducted by W. C. Crandall and P. S. Barnhart. 



The university has been encouraged in such 

 undertakings by the success of the annual 

 summer session at Berkeley (for next summer 

 from Jime 26 to August 5), which last year 

 enrolled 5,364 students. 



Half a mile of ocean frontage, with cliffs, 

 sand beaches and tide pools inhabited by a 

 wide variety of sea-life is the ideal location 

 which the Scripps Institution for Biological 

 Eesearch occupies, two miles north of La JoUa 

 and fifteen miles north of the center of San 

 Diego but within the corporate limits of the 

 city. The " investors," as Miss Ellen B. 

 Scripps and Mr. E. W. Scripps prefer to be 

 known, have provided the Scripps Institution 

 with maintenance funds and with a commodi- 

 ous laboratory building containing twelve 

 private laboratories for investigators, a large 

 aquarium room, a two-story concrete museum 

 and library building, now in course of con- 

 struction ; and a concrete pier a thousand feet 



in length, at which the eighty-five foot collect- 

 ing vessel, the Alexander Agassiz, can dock, and 

 from the end of which, far out beyond the surf 

 zone, pure sea water is pumped in to supply 

 the nineteen tanks in the public aquarium and 

 also the scientific laboratories. The institu- 

 tion possesses a biological library of over 

 5,000 bound volumes and 8,000 pamphlets and 

 the principal scientific journals in its field, 

 and a museimi is being assembled of the 

 marine fauna of the California coast. 



" Endowed research in pure science is abso- 

 lutely essential to continued progress in 

 civilization " — such is the declaration of faith 

 which Director William E. Ritter makes in his 

 announcement of this assembly in science at 

 La Jolla, from June 25 to August 5. "In a 

 democratic country like ours," he continues, 

 " there must be provision for investigation 

 and also definite measures to disseminate the 

 fruits of investigation as widely as possible 

 among the people." 



Any persons interested in science who wish 

 to attend the assembly at the Scripps Insti- 

 tution are requested to write as soon as pos- 

 sible to Professor William E. Ritter, scientific 

 director of the institution, at La Jolla, so that 

 proper provision may be made. 



THE CLOSING OF BRITISH MUSEUMS 



A PROTEST against the closing of British 

 museums (including art galleries) was made 

 to the prime minister on February 10 by a 

 deputation representing the Museums Asso- 

 ciation, the ISTational Art Collections Fund, 

 the Royal Asiatic Society, the Hellenic Soci- 

 ety, the Art Workers' Guild and the Imperial 

 Arts League. Mr. Asquith said that in addi- 

 tion to the reading room of the British Mu- 

 seimi, the government had decided to keep 

 open the ISTational Gallery and the Victoria 

 and Albert Museum. In view of the numerous 

 colonial visitors and wounded soldiers who re- 

 sorted to the N"atural History Museum, a fur- 

 ther concession might be made by keeping 

 open the portions of the museum which most 

 interest ordinary visitors. Sir E. Ray Lan- 

 kester writes to the London Times: 



I am afraid that our legislators are ignorant of 



