October 13, 1911] 



SCIENCE 



483 



circumstance that, under the present limita- 

 tions of income, it seems wisest to make re- 

 search the primary object. Consequently, 

 whenever, as in these cases, it happens that 

 equipment and experience can be made to 

 serve industrial ends without considerable 

 interference with research, the management is 

 more than glad to thus extend the station's 

 usefulness. 



Worthy of record is the solution that has 

 been reached, so far as the work itself is con- 

 cerned, of the problem of manning the 

 Agassiz satisfactorily to the purposes for 

 which she exists. Considerable difficulty has 

 been experienced heretofore in finding a man 

 who should be at the same time seaman and 

 scientist enough to get the best results from 

 the operations at sea. Mr. Crandall, when 

 not occupied in the school room, had spent 

 much of his time on the boat looking after 

 the scientific work. He finally decided that 

 with a little more preparation he could man- 

 age the whole business, boat and all, more 

 satisfactorily than it was being done. Con- 

 sequently, he successfully took the examina- 

 tion for a license as master of a boat of the 

 class to which the Agassiz belongs. The re- 

 sult is that the boat, under his command, is 

 being operated more efficiently, smoothly and 

 economically in proportion to the work done 

 than ever before. The one serious difficulty 

 is, of course, that school duties make it im- 

 possible for him to go with the boat at times 

 when it is very important for her to be at sea. 



Although in a number of respects condi- 

 tions at present are such as to make it im- 

 possible to specially encourage outside in- 

 vestigators to come to the station for the 

 prosecution of their special studies, still sev- 

 eral who were willing to take their chances 

 of finding enough to make the coming worth 

 their while have been at La Jolla during the 

 summer. 



Dr. David Marine, of the medical research 

 laboratories of the Western Reserve Univer- 

 sity, devoted six weeks to studying the endo- 

 style of the lower chordates. His aim is to 

 apply chemical and physiological tests to this 

 structure for the purpose of finding whether 



any of the reactions characteristic of the 

 thyroid of man and the higher chordates, can 

 be detected. It was not possible in so short a 

 time to carry the work to definite results, 

 positive or negative. It is certainly to be 

 hoped that Dr. Marine may be able before 

 long to push the study to a conclusion. 



Professor H. B. Ward, of the University of 

 Illinois, with three graduate students, spent 

 about six weeks at the station on the very 

 laudable mission of gaining a knowledge of 

 the marine fauna and general biological con- 

 ditions of the region. Incidentally Dr. Ward 

 gave two popular lectures to appreciative 

 audiences of La Jolla citizens, one on " Zool- 

 ogy in Relation to Human Welfare," and the 

 other on " Public Health." 



Wm. E. Ritter 



La Jolla, Cal., 

 October 3, 1911 



TEE INTERNATIONAL EUGENICS 

 CONGRESS 

 The Eugenics Education Society has ar- 

 ranged for an International Eugenics Con- 

 gress to be held in London from July 24 to 30, 

 1912, under the presidency of Major Leonard 

 Darwin. It is proposed to group the papers 

 into the following four sections : 



1. The Bearing upon Eugenics of Biological Re- 



search. Facts of Heredity; Physiological 

 Aspects of Heredity; Variations, their Nature 

 and Causation; Eace Mixture. 



2. The Bearing upon Eugenics of Sociological and 



Historical Research. Historical Evidence with 

 regard to changes in Racial Characters; Birth- 

 rate and Death-rate Statistics; Effects of 

 Medical and Surgical Treatment in Encour- 

 aging Unfitness. 



3. The Bearing upon Eugenics of Legislation and 



Social Customs. Marriage Laws and Customs ; 

 Taxation; Economic Conditions; Insurance; 

 Trades Unionism. 



4. Consideration of the Practical Applications of 



Eugenic Principles. Prevention of the Propa- 

 gation of the Unfit by Segregation and Steril- 

 ization; Voluntary Eestriction of Propagation 

 of the Unsound; The Encouragement of the 

 Propagation of the Fit; Promulgation of the 

 Eugenic Ideal; The Place of Eugenics in 

 Educational Systems. 



