480 
namely, upon Collegiate Cooperation as fol- 
lows: Professor Libbey, of Princeton, Chair- 
man; Professors Whitman, Macfarlane, Pen- 
hallow, Gardiner, Mall and Osborn; also a 
Committee upon Admission to Membership in 
the corporation, Professor T. H. Morgan, of 
Bryn Mawr, Chairman; Dr. E. G. Conklin, Dr. 
J. P. MeMurrich, Dr. W. F. Ganong, Dr. H. 
G. Gardiner and Miss Katharine Foot. It was 
decided to hold the next full meeting of the 
Board at Ithaca, during the meeting of the 
American Society of Naturalists in December, 
and to issue the annual report immediately 
thereafter. 
THE JOHNS HOPKINS BIOLOGICAL STATION IN 
JAMAICA. 
WE have received from Mr. J. E. Duerdon, 
curator of the Jamaica Institute at Kingston, 
some notes regarding the researches undertaken 
this summer at the Marine Laboratory at Port 
Antonio under the charge of Professor J. E. 
Humphrey, whose sad death we were recently 
compelled to record. The party, twelve in 
number, secured two well-lighted rooms in the 
Titchfield Hotel of the Boston fruit company 
for a laboratory which afforded accommoda- 
tion for eight tables, the necessary apparatus 
and reagents being brought from the University 
Laboratory. From the shallow waters around 
the harbor collections have been made in most 
of the various groups of animals, while the 
land has also been scoured for representatives 
of the fauna and flora. It was not found pos- 
sible to carry on much dredging. In the facili- 
ties for collecting and in the richness of forms 
met with, the locality has been shown to sur- 
pass Port Henderson in many ways; though, 
owing to the continuous absence of a smooth 
sea about the margin of the coral reefs, Port 
Antonio compares unfavorably for reef work 
with the conditions to be met with, for some 
hours each morning, at the Port Royal Cays 
near Port Henderson. 
Professor Humphrey was giving special atten- 
tion to the shell-perforating algse or sea-weeds 
and to the embryology of certain groups of the 
flowering plants, particularly among the latter 
to those of the pepper and ginger families. Dr. 
F. §. Conant continued investigations begun by 
SCIENCE. 
[N. S. Vou. VI. No. 143. 
him last summer upon the Cubo-medusx, a rare 
group of jelly-fish of which two species haye 
been found in extraordinary abundance in Ja- 
maican waters. The chief object of investiga- 
tion this season has been the function of the 
sensory organs of the jelly-fish, and mate- 
rial has been prepared with especial reference 
to a study of the changes, under the influence 
of light and darkness, in the pigment or color- 
ing matter of the retina of the eyes. Dr. H. 
L. Clark has been engaged in a continuation of 
the work which he also began last summer on 
the Echinoderms (star-fish, sea-eggs, sand-dol- 
lars, sea-cucumbers, etc.), of the island, giving 
especial attention to the Holothurians or ‘ sea- 
cucumbers,’ forms of life which are very abun- 
dant around Jamaica. Over fifty species of the 
group of the Echinoderms have now been col- 
lected by him and other workers, some of 
which are possibly new to science. Mr. 
Sudler has been studying the life history of 
Lucifer, one of the small crustacez; Mr. 
Greve, Ophiurius, or sea stars, and Mr. Berger, 
especially pseudo-scorpions. Collections have 
been made by Mr. A. Fredholm, of the Smith- 
sonian Institution, Mr. Wilson and others. 
Mr. Duerdon was allowed the facilities of the 
laboratory and made a study of the Actiniaria. 
THE CONFERENCE ON THE SEAL FISHERIES. 
THE British Foreign Office has issued a blue 
book of 180 pages containing the correspond- 
ence with the United States government re- 
specting the seal fisheries in Behring Sea. 
Lord Salisbury, replying to Secretary Sher- 
man’s despatch of May 10th, sent a short note 
to Ambassador Hay on July 28th. We repro- 
duce this note, as it shows that the conference 
in Washington is intended to be strictly scien- 
tific in character. 
“T have to state that her Majesty’s Government 
are willing to agree to a meeting of experts, nominated 
by Great Britain, Canada and the United States, in 
October next, when further investigations to be made 
on the islands during the present season will have 
been completed. 
‘‘The object of the meeting would be to arrive at 
correct conclusions respecting the numbers, condition 
and habits of the seals frequenting the Pribylov Is- 
lands at the present time, as compared with several 
seasons previous and subsequent to the Paris award. 
