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—Volume IINumber 5WOODS HOLE, MASS.. SATURDAY, AUGUST 6, 1927KuhNcription $i.2^CLUB PLAYS AREGIVEN SATURDAYFor several years the M. B. L.Social and Tennis Clubs havecombined to give an annual entertainmentconsisting of oneactplays, music and varietynumbers. This year a gala performancehas been arranged forSaturday evening, Aug. 6, at8:30, in the M. B. L. Auditorium.In order to meet the variedtastes of the members of ourlarge and complex communityto please the high-brow, the lowbrow,and the omni-brow, andto do it in one evening—^a diversifiedfeast will be laid beforethem, and it is predicted that hewill be a most ardent pessimistand misanthrope who will notthoroughly enjoy some part ifnot all of the program. Therewill be two one-act plays, instrumentalmusic of a highorder, and several vaudevillenumbers accompanied by, andinterspersed with, appropriatemusic.The first play will be a dramatizationof a scene from BoothTarkington's famous book "Penrodand Sam", entitled: "ConcerningTrousers". All thev^ork on this play—^the adaptation,directing, scenery, and(with one exceptioii^ the acting—isbeing clone 'by an enthusiasticjunior dramatic groupthe oldest of whom is thirteenyears old.(Continued on Page 11)m. ^. %. CalendarSaturday, Aug. 68:30 P. M.M. B. L. Club Plays. Auditorium.Admission: 50 cents and $1.00.Sunday, Aue:. 79:00 P. M.Informal Singing. Upstairs on theM. B. L. Club porch.Monday, August 812:00 MEnd of Class Work.Monday, August 8Concert: Woods Hole Choral Society.M. B. L. Auditorium.Tuesday, August 912:00 M.Annual Meeting of the Corporationof the Marine BiologicalLaboratory.Friday, August 124:00-6:00 "p. M.Tea. Investigator. M. B. L. Club.REMINISCENCES OF THEFiSH COMMISSSIONDr. Edwin LintonHonorary Research Fellow in Zoolology.University of Pennsylvania11. Early DaysSome years ago, in an eveninglecture before the MarineBiological Laboratory, I gavesome reminiscences of theWoods Hole Laboratory of theBureau of Fisheries. This lecturewas published in Sciencevol. 41; pp. 737-753. Also inScience, vol. 48 ; pp. 25-34, thereis published .471 Appreciation ofSpencer FuUerton Baird, inwhich reference to his work atWoods Hole is made. In thetwo issues of The Collecting Netwhich precede this issue thereappears a paper which was preparedfor a special occasion, thetitle of which paper is: BairdatWoods Hole.In complying with the editor'srequest that I write someof my recollections of the FishCommission at Woods Hole forThe Collecting Net, it is not myintention to make much use ofmaterial already published, although,naturally, as I attemptto recall memories of times past,the same persons, and doubtlesssome of the incidents whichcame to the front in my publishedreminiscences will again appearon the stage.It was in the summer of 1882that I had my first experiencewith the U. S. Fish Commission.I had just finished a year'sgraduate study at Yale wheremost of my work had been withProfessors A. E. Verrill andSydney I. Smith, both of whom(Continued on Page 8)Corporation MeetingThe annual meeting .of theCorporation of the Marine BiologicalLaboratory will be heldin the auditorium of the laboratoryat Woods Hole, Mass., onTuesday, August 9th, at 1.2o'clock noon for the election ofofficers and trustees and thetransaction of such business asmay come before the meeting.THE GENE AND THE ONTOGENETIC PROCESSFrank R. LillieProfessor of Zoology, University of ChicagoDr. LilUe delivered a lecture bearing the above title on the evening of July22. The author's STjmmary and a review of the paper follow.The presentation involved two aspects : first, critical, tooffset the conception especially as presented by (joldsmidt inhis "Physiologische Theorie der Vererbung", but also outlinedby others, that the theory of the gene may be developed into a-complete theory of the organism.Second, constructive, toReviewseek by correct definitions theBY Leigh Hoadleyrespective roles of the physiologyof development and gene-Assistant Professor of Zoology,Harvard Universitytics in the life history. It wasThose who heard the lecture pointed out in the introductionthat the conception of a singleof Prof. Frank R. Lillie a weektheory covering both geneticsago Friday evening had probablyanticipated a comprehensive ment is a reversion to the uni-and the physiology of develop-discussion of this subject by one tary conceptions of Darwin andwho has been in intimate contactwith much of the importedthat work since their timeWeismann, and it was maintainantwork on the physiology of has led, and is still leading, todevelopment, and one who has a sharp separation of these twomade definite contributions of disciplines.a very high character to its Since as a result of modernfundamental concepts and investigations genetics has becomesquite a unitary science,hypotheses. Nor were they disappointed.while physiology of developmentis at most a field of work,After mentioning the divergenceof schools which followed it was considered advisable tothe overthrow of the determinis-proceed by an examination oftic hypothesis of Weismann,Prof. Lillie emphasized the differenceswhich exist today betweenthe schools dealing primarilywith nuclear or cytoplasmicphenomena, and then showedthe importance of recognizingboth aspects to any adequatetheory of development. Thiswas nicely expressed in the discussionof the fundamental conceptswhich were presented asan introduction to the developmentof the main theses. These,viz., the germ, individuation anddifferentiation i. e. the origin ofembryonic segregates togetherwith the elaboration and realizationof potencies of the finalterm, lead to several conclusionswhich are extremely importantto an adequate conception of developmentalprocesses.I do not wish, nor is it myplace, to review the definitionswhich were given, but there arecertain qualifications which Iwish to emphasize. In the firstthe necessary concepts ofphsyiology of development, followedby an inquiry into therelation of the theory of thegene for each concept.The concepts considered werethose of the germ, of individuation,and of differentiation inits two aspects of embryonicsegregation of potencies and ofrealizationof potencies.Omitting in this abstract thedefinitions of the germ and ofindividuation, embryonic segregationwas characterized as follows:1. Its' action proceeds from themore general to the more specialin a definite sequence which isboth dichotomous and discontinuous.2. This results in a progressivegenetic restriction, of amore or less fixed kind, in theprimordia thus established.3. These processes exhibit definiteorder, (a) in time, (b) inspace, i. e. localization in the(Continued on Page 5) (Continued on Page 4)