lO 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIX. No. 465 



which could furnish some tie of social solidaritj- between students 

 while in residence here, and bring the men into easy communica- 

 tion with universitif s wlien abroad, has been lacking. This want, 

 felt by the graduates and some members of the faculty, led to the 

 formation, May 25, 1891, of the Graduate Students' Association. 

 Similar associations have been formed in the universities of Edin- 

 burgh, Paris, and in other European universities. 



The specific purposes of the association may be gathered from 

 the resolutions passed at the first mass- meeting, from the consti- 

 tution adopted Oct. 17, ani from the reports of the various com- 

 mittees. AH- of these are freely used in the preparation of the 

 present statement. 



Any graduate student may become a member of the association 

 on signing the constitution and paying a small annual fee 



The honorary members consist of the members of the faculty, 

 all past members of the association, and of such distinguished men 

 at home or abroad as may be elected to honorary membership at 

 the yearly meeting of the association. 



The functions of the association are comprised in the divisions: 

 international, national, and local or social. The committee on 

 international relatiffins furnish students going abroad with letters 

 of introduction to similar associations in foreign universities, and 

 receive students with letters from like associations of foreign 

 universities. National functions are carried out by a commit- 

 tee who strive to promote intercourse with colleges and uni- 

 versities in the United States and present the advantages of 

 this university to students who contemplate graduate work. This 

 committee has charge of university extension in Baltimore. The 

 social committee receive new students, acquaint them with uni- 

 versity^methods and give other desired information. They are 

 the medium for co-operation between the faculty and students. 

 They secure any advantages in trade, and adopt such means as 

 may be feasible to promote, sociability among the students. 



These and other constitutional provisions have been carried out 

 during the present half-year as follows: — 



A students' committee, consisting of one from each depart- 

 ment, elected by the graduate students of the several departments, 

 was chosen. 



The student representatives of the respective departments are: 

 astronomy, Brantz M. Roszel; chemistry, J. E. Gilpin; geology, 

 Francis P. King ; biology, R. G. Harrison ; physics, George O. 

 Squier; mathematics, E. P. Manning; English, F. J. Mather; 

 history, J. A. James; German, Albert B. Faust; Greek, John H. 

 T. Main; Latin, Sidney G. Stacey; Sanskrit, William W. Baden; 

 romance languages, Julius Blume ; Semitic languages, J. D. 

 Prince; pathology, S. Flexner. This general committee, in pur- 

 suance of powers granted, elected the association officers and ap- 

 pointed sub-committees for the present year. 



The following officers and sub-committees were elected: hon- 

 orary president. Professor H. B. Adams ; president, John H. T. 

 Main ; vice-president, W. I. Hull ; secretary, R. G. Harrison; 

 treasurer, T. S. Baker; committee on international relations, J. 

 E. Blume, David Kinley, and F. J. Mather; committee on na- 

 tional relations, J. A. James, G. W. Smith, and W. H. Kilpat- 

 rick; committee on social relations, R. P. Bigelow, A. B. Faust, 

 S. G. Stacey, U. 8. Grant, and J. Blume. 



The work accomplished by the committees, although a mere 

 beginning, serves to show that the association has a valuable 

 place in university life. Communication has been entered into 

 with associations of foreign universities. Lectures and courses of 

 lectures have been given by graduate students in the interest of 

 churches and of city associations. 



Dr. Walter B. Scaife, a former Hopkins student, by the invita- 

 tion of Professor Adams, is to give for the benefit of the associa- 

 tion an illustrated lecture on " Florence and the Florentines." 

 This lecture is to be given in Levering Hall and followed by an 

 assembly in the parlors. This meeting will be the first of a series 

 of social gatherings to take place during the year. 



Through these means it is believed that departmental isolation 

 will be overcome ; that men may, through this association, enter 

 into a broader student life, and that the university at large will 

 be convinced of the need for wider social relations than are found 

 in the laboratory or seminary. 



JOHNS HOPKINS MARINE LABORATORY. 



The following report of the 1891 session of the Marine Zoologi- 

 cal Laboratory has just been made to the president of the Johns 

 Hopkins University. 



Early in May, 1891, some of the members of our party went to 

 Jamaica, which had been selected as our field of work for the 

 season, while others joined us later on. 



Our party was as follows : W. K. Brooks, director ; E. A. An- 

 drews, associate in biology; R. P. Bigelow, graduate student in 

 biology ; J. P. Campbell, professor of biology, Athens, Georgia ; 

 G. W. Field, graduate student in biology ; J. C. Gifford, special 

 student in pathology; R. G. Harrison, H. M. Knower, and M. M. 

 Metcalf, graduate students in biology ; T. H. Morgan, Adam T. 

 Bruce fellow; G. C. Price, graduate student in biology ; John 

 Stuart, teacher of science, Hope School, Jamaica ; Charles Taylor, 

 Kingston, Jamaica; B. W. Barton, lecturer in botany; Basil Sel- 

 lers, teacher, Baltimore. The two last named devoted themselves 

 to botanical exploration and study in the interior of the island, 

 and they did not visit the laboratory at the seashore. 



After a preliminary exploration of different seaports, we selected 

 Port Henderson as our station. This is a seaside resort in King- 

 ston Harbor, opposite Port Royal, and about nine miles by water 

 from Kingston. Here we found two partially furnished houses 

 suitable for a laboratory and lodgings, and we rented and occu- 

 pied them for about fourteen weeks, from May 26 to Sept. 1. 



The establishment of a party in a new home at a remote point 

 in a strange country is a task which, in the mid-summer climate 

 of the tropics, is most severe and exhausting. Of this, I was en- 

 tirely relieved by Dr. Morgan and Mr. Bigelow, who themselves 

 attended to all the preliminary work with great efficiency, and I 

 take this opportunity to thank them for their willing help, which 

 contributed in no small degree to the success of our expedition. 



Our summer was devoted, in great part, to the collection and 

 preservation of material for embryological work at home, and, as 

 the members of the party are still employed in preparing and 

 studying it, the results are not yet far enough advanced for re- 

 porting. There are a few noteworthy points of interest, however. 

 Among them are the following: — 



Soon after we settled at Port Henderson, Mr. Field found near 

 our laboratory, in an enclosed lagoon of dense salt water, a very 

 remarkable rhizostomatous medusa belonging to the genus Cassio- 

 pea. No special of this genus, as limited by Haeckel, has hereto- 

 fore been found anywhere in the Atlantic. It is a South Pacific 

 form, and the known species are from this region or fi-om the 

 Indian Ocean and the Red Sea. A species of a closely related 

 genus, Polyclonia frondosa, was found by L. Agassiz oa the coast 

 of Florida, and was referred by him to the genus Cassiopea, al- 

 though it is not a true Cassiopea. Polyclonia frondosa is found 

 in Jamaica also, and we obtained specimens in Port Royal Har- 

 bor. It is also found in the Bahamas, and Professor H. V. Wil- 

 son has given to me the notes and drawings which he made from 

 specimens wbich he obtained at Green Turtle Kay. 



The medusa which we found at Port Henderson is not a Poly- 

 clonia, but a true Cassiopea, and the only one as yet found in the 

 Atlantic. As it is very abundant and conspicuous, its escape from 

 the notice of naturalists for such a long time is remarkable, for it 

 is so well known to the negro fishermen of Jamaica that they 

 have a name for it — the Guinea corn blubber. As it is one of 

 the most common and characteristic marine animals of these wa- 

 ters, I have proposed to call it, after the Indian name of the 

 island, Cassiopea Xamacha. While it is able to swim slowly by 

 the pulsations of its bell, it is usually found fixed upon the smooth 

 chalky bottom by the flat sucker-like surface of its exumbrella, 

 and in some places the bottom was so completely covered with 

 them that their circular discs were actually touching each other, 

 while the interspaces were filled in by smaller specimens. 



Our knowledge of the life history of the rhizostomatous me- 

 dussB is very incomplete, and is based entirely upon the study of 

 the Mediterranean Colytorhiza tuberculata, a species which be- 

 longs to a more specialized division of the group than Cassiopea, 

 although it was formerly called Cassiopea Borbonica. Many fun- 

 damental points in the development of the rhizostomes, ar-d, in 



