OCTOBER 8, 1897. | 
board of trustees was held at Wood’s Holl 
on August 6, 1897. At this meeting only 
a small attendance is expected, as it is 
known that many members are usually ab- — 
sent on expeditions or vacations, and, ac- 
cordingly, until this year only routine busi- 
ness had been transacted at this meeting. 
Before this meeting began, Dr. Whitman 
stated, deliberately, to the Acting Presi- 
dent in response to a question, that there 
was no important new business to be 
brought forward. After the hour of the 
meeting the four members of the board 
who had come from Boston to attend were 
Kept waiting half an hour for the ar- 
rival of the other members who were 
then at Wood’s Holl, although it was 
known that most of the Boston trus- 
tees must return by the last train in two 
hours. On the motion of Dr. E. G. Gar- 
diner some 150 new members of the 
corporation were elected, most of them 
students at the Laboratory. Without this 
election it is doubtful if the subsequent 
plans could have been carried through. 
After all the business known to the Presi- 
dent and Secretary had been transacted, 
Dr. Whitman introduced an extended dis- 
cussion on some matters of the past (about 
which no action was possible). Almost im- 
mediately thereafter it became necessary 
for three members to leave to take the last 
train to Boston, and a protest against con- 
tinuing the meeting was made but was 
overridden. The meeting was continued by 
Dr. Whitman, Dr. EH. G. Gardiner, Profes- 
sor J. P. McMurrich, Professor S. F. 
Clarke and the Secretary, who remained. 
The proposition to hold the annual meeting 
at Wood’s Holl, a piece of important new 
business, for which there had previously 
been ample opportunity was then brought 
forward, and the following votes were 
passed, the Secretary voting in the negative 
in each case. The Secretary also made 
strong protests against passing so revolu- 
SCIENCE. 
533 
tionary measures after the Acting President 
and two trustees had left the meeting. 
Voted on the motion of Dr. HE. G. Gardi- 
ner: That the clerk be directed to call 
a special meeting of the corporation to con- 
sider the advisability of changing the by- 
laws, the meeting to be held at the Parker 
House, Boston, on August 16th. 
Voted: That the temporary chairman 
(Professor MeMurrich) appoint a committee 
of three to formulate the changes in the 
by-laws. 
The committee was constituted with Dr. 
Gardiner, chairman; Dr. Whitman and 
Professor Clarke. 
The purpose of the proposed changes was 
to have the annual meetings of the corpora- 
tion held at Wood’s Holl, to change the 
board of trustees from a body practically 
self-perpetuating to an elective body, and 
to place the control of the Laboratory in new 
hands. 
We consider the action taken entirely 
unjustifiable, owing to the methods em- 
ployed. There are also special reasons 
which made it unsuitable for Dr. Whitman 
and for Dr. Gardiner and Professor McMur- 
rich to pursue the course taken. 
In his Report for 1895, p. 47, Dr. Whit- 
man says: ‘‘It still remains possible for a 
minority of four to hold meetings at con- 
venience in Boston and regulate the affairs 
of the Laboratory, and that, too, in the ab- 
sence of every one familiar with the needs. 
It makes no difference whether this has or 
has not been done; the possibility of its 
being done is what jeopardizes vital interests 
of the Laboratory.” 
We call attention to the fact that Dr. 
Whitman, aided by Messrs. Gardiner, Mc- 
Murrich and Clarke, is the first and only 
person who has profited by the possibility 
he so emphatically condemned, and that, by 
utilizing it, he and his three supporters suc- 
ceeded in setting aside the expressed wishes 
of the board of trustees, and in changing 
