8i8  Mulford  Biological  Exploration.       { Xvlmberi92o: 
superior  quality  of  rubber  is  produced  in  the  region  and  this  will 
receive  close  attention.  No  opportunity  will  be  lost  for  securing 
materials  from  which  the  nature  of  tropical  diseases  can  be  studied 
in  the  Mulford  Laboratories  at  Glenolden. 
The  complete  study  of  the  medicinal  products  will  occupy  the 
attention  of  many  specialists.  Dr.  Rusby  will  himself  undertake 
their  botanical  classification  and  description.  Their  microscopical 
study  will  be  pursued  by  Dr.  Ballard  at  the  Columbia  University 
School  of  Pharmac}^  by  Professor  Younken  at  Philadelphia,  Schneider 
of  Nebraska,  Newcomb  of  Minnesota  and  others.  Their  chemistry 
will  be  studied  by  Arny  of  Columbia,  Jordan  of  Purdue,  Sayre  and 
Havenhill  of  Kansas.  The  study  of  their  physiological  and  medicinal 
properties  will  occupy  the  attention  of  many  medical  men  at  Yale, 
Harvard,  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  Johns  Hopkins,  and  con- 
nected with  the  American  Medical  Association  headquarters  in 
Chicago. 
The  Division  of  Biology  and  Agriculture  of  the  National  Re- 
search Council  has  interested  itself  actively  in  this  enterprise  and 
has  rendered  valuable  assistance. 
The  general  route  to  be  traversed  by  the  party  will  be  the  country 
along  the  base  of  the  Andes  from  Villavicensio,  southeast  of  Bogota, 
to  Calamar,  several  hundred  miles  south.  At  various  points  the 
valleys  and  canons  issuing  from  the  mountains  will  be  ascended  and 
collections  made.  A  number  of  lakes  along  the  route  will  also  be 
visited.  At  Calamar,  land  travel  will  be  abandoned  and  river- 
boats  secured  for  the  descent  of  the  Uaupes  River.  Until  a  recent 
period,  only  the  lower  part  of  this  river  was  known  to  science.  There 
are  a  number  of  rubber  collecting  stations  along  its  course,  and  it 
has  been  more  or  less  traversed  by  traders.  For  the  most  part, 
however,  this  region  is  occupied  by  little  or  not  at  all  civilized  abo- 
rigines, who  at  times  at  least  have  exhibited  hostility  against  the 
whites.  For  our  knowledge  of  this  region,  science  is  almost  wholly 
indebted  to  the  work  of  Dr.  Hamilton  Rice,  who,  in  the  face  of  great 
difficulties,  and  under  great  hardships,  traversed  the  river  almost 
from  its  source  to  its  mouth  at  the  Rio  Negro.  Dr.  Rice  has  gienn 
us  two  excellent  and  comprehensive  accounts  of  it,  in  the  Geographical 
Journal  for  June,  1910  and  August,  1914.  Both  papers  are  ac- 
companied by  maps,  not  only  of  this,  but  of  neighboring  rivers 
which  he  first  explored. 
Judged  by  its  peculiar  position  and  topography,  the  section  to 
