Natural Science News. 



VOL. I ALBION, N. Y., SEPTEMBER 7, 1895. No. 32 



Natural Science News. 



A Weekly Journal Devoted to 

 Natural History. 



FRANK H. LATTIN, Editor and Publisher, 

 ALBION, N. Y. 



Correspondence and items of interest to the 

 student of any of the various branches of the 

 Natural Sciences solicited from all. 



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The Biological Laboratory at 

 Cold Spring Harbor, Long 

 Island, N. Y. 



The visitors who find their way 

 into the bright, airy laboratory at 

 Cold Spring Harbor, and are shewn 

 about by Dr. Conn, the director, 

 can hardly fail of getting a pleas- 

 ant impression of the place. But 

 the full charm and value of the 

 work done here and the esprit de 

 corps of instructors and students 

 can only be realized by one who 

 has studied here for a summer. 

 And most fortunate of all the stu- 

 dents who have ever attended the 

 sessions of the school are those 

 who have come this year, for the 

 comforts of living have never be- 

 fore been so ample. 



The foundation of the school 

 was due primarily to the energy of 

 Professor Franklin W. Hooper, 

 secretary of the Brooklyn Institute, 

 under the auspices of which it was 

 established and is still maintained. 

 Prominent on its board of mana- 

 gers from the first have been the 

 Hon. Eugene G. Blackford, Mr. 

 John D. Jones and Dr. O. L.Jones, 

 and their generous gifts contributed 

 largely to its original equipment. 



For the first three summers the 

 work was carried on at the Hatch- 

 ery of the N ew York I 1 ish Commis- 

 sion, but under much inconven- 

 ience; the necessarily limited 

 number of students found lodgings 

 where they could in the vicinity. 

 But with a director so able and en- 

 thusiastic as Dr. H, W. Conn, of 

 Wesleyan University, who- took 

 charge of the work the second sum- 



mer, the school was bound to 

 grow. In 1892, Mr. John D. 

 Jones, already mentioned as among 

 the first benefactors, was instru- 

 mental in the incorporation of an 

 association called the Wawepax 

 Society, and it is to this organiza- 

 tion that the school owes its pres- 

 ent ample quarters. 



The laboratory which they built, 

 after Dr. Conn's plans, was oc- 

 cupied last summer. This year 

 they have put at the disposal of 

 the students two comfortable 

 buildings for dormitories. The 

 one for ladies, which contains a 

 dining room and reading room for 

 the whole party, is especially pleas- 

 ant. 1 The buildings have been 

 comfortably furnished by the 

 Brooklyn Institute. Together 

 with the lecture hall and Professor 

 Conn's home, also given by the 

 Wawepax Society, they form a 

 picturesque group most conven- 

 iently situated with reference to 

 each other. 



Their location is delightful, for 

 they stand on the hillside sloping 

 to the head of Cold Spring Harbor, 

 with wooded hills behind them 

 and across the inlet, while in the 

 distance stretches the Sound. 

 New York is only thirty miles 

 away, but the quiet of the place 

 could hardly be more if we were in 

 the heart of a desert. 



Not only do we hear no market 

 wagons, fog horns, trolley gongs 

 or locomotive whistles, but not 

 even a town clock disturbs us. 

 The rest to tired nerves is almost 

 equal in value to the benefit to be 

 derived from the work; to some 

 people it may mean quite as much. 



The laboratory deserves fuller 

 description. It is a pretty building, 

 72 feet long by 36 feet wide, fin- 

 ished exteriorly with shingles and 

 interiorly with polished Georgia 

 pine; a large brownstone fireplace 

 partly fills one side of the main 

 room. There are wide and high 

 windows close together on every 

 side, so that light and air are as 

 abundant as possible. 



Through the warm July days it 

 has not been uncomfortable. Broad 

 working tables fitted with drawers 

 stand in range of the windows 

 along the sides of the room in suffi- 

 cient number to accomodate about 

 forty students. There are six 

 rooms fitted up for private labora- 

 tories for the professors and inves- 

 tigators. 



Along the center of the main 



room aquaria are placed, through 

 which fresh or sea water may be 

 made to pass at will by turning a 

 stopcock in the pipes above. Noth- 

 ing in the life here is more enter- 

 taining than to watch that of the 

 forms which for the time inhabit 

 these aquaria. Today we may 

 find the sides of one beset by star 

 fishes, little and big, their ambu- 

 lacral feet cling so fast that they 

 will lose some rather than let go, 

 if you attempt to move them. Be- 

 low them hermit crabs are looking 

 out from snail shells of varying 

 sizes; a spider crab is dining off 

 her own eggs, which she picks out 

 with her long claws, while another 

 is feasting upon a dead brother. 



Scollops are popping up and 

 down in jolly fashion, and great 

 clumsy whelks have their broad 

 yellow feet spread firmly upon the 

 side of the aquarium where they 

 are companions in exile. 



In the next one, perhaps, there 

 is a mass of squids' eggs in long, 

 airy looking sacs, from which, one 

 b} one, minute independent squids 

 now begin to swim into sight. 

 Farther on we may see botanical 

 specimens: delicate green or red 

 algaea, and beside them in the next 

 aquarium is a pond lily plant, 

 root, leaves and fruit all in sight. 

 Yesterday one aquarium was full 

 of beautiful sponges, of which sev- 

 eral varieties are found in the 

 Sound. Tomorrow some of these 

 forms that we have watched with 

 so much interest will give place to 

 others perhaps even more curious. 



These specimens are, for the 

 most part, brought in by dredging 

 parties who go out in the naphtha 

 launch belonging to the laboratory. 

 It is run by a man who knows just 

 where to "let down the net" for 

 everything these waters yield. 

 The boat is swift and fairly com- 

 fortable, and the excursions upon 

 it are among the most delightful 

 and profitable features of the life 

 here. 



The working day begins at nine 

 o'clock in the morning, when Prof. 

 Fernald, of the State College, 

 Pennsylvania, gives a lecture in 

 the course in zoology and Prof. 

 Conn gives one to advanced stu 

 dents in his course in embryology. 

 These last an hour, and then all 

 pass to their places at the tables in 

 the laboratory. Each student is 

 provided with the instruments he 

 needs for dissection, and with a 

 microscope, if he has not brought 

 his own. The morning is all too 



