In
the years following Baird's death the major emphasis in the
work of the Woods Hole Station was placed on fish culture and
routine administration rather than on scientific investigations.
Because of this trend the Woods Hole Station became the principal
hatchery for artificial propagation of marine fish species.
Administratively, the Station was under the Division of Propagation
and Distribution of Fishes, and the Superintendent of the Station
became responsible for the operation of the hatchery, maintenance
of buildings and grounds, and expenditures of funds allocated
to the institution. The Report of the Fish Commission shows
that in the year of 1887, C.G. Atkins was Superintendent and
William P. Seal was in charge of the aquaria. The scientific
work was divided between J.N. Kidder, in charge of the physical
and chemical laboratory, and A.E. Verrill,- assisted by Richard
Rathbun- who was in charge of the biological laboratory. Among
the 16 persons attending the summer session, 10 were engaged
in research work, 4 can be listed as assistants to the investigations,
1 was an artist, and Vinal N. Edwards was the collector. The
division of responsibilities as well as the titles of the positions
occupied by various persons was not definitely established.
In 1888 John A. Ryder was in charge of the laboratory with 23
biologists in attendance. In the spring of the following year,
H.V. Wilson was appointed "resident naturalist" and remained
in this position until the summer of 1892. The number of investigators
in this period varied between 12 and 16.
Henry Van Peters Wilson (fig. 23) was a man of dynamic personality.
In a biographical sketch published by D. P. Costello (1961)
Wilson is described as a small man, 5 feet 6-1/2 inches tall
and never weighing more than 120 pounds, with piercing blue
eyes. "He was not a man lightly to tolerate fools among his
colleagues, assistants, or students. He expected efficiency
approaching perfection in others as well as in himself, and
worked with tireless energy to attempt to achieve this end."
Unfortunately, the records of the Bureau of Fisheries contain
no personal notes, letters, or other materials which would indicate
his attitude toward his assistants and personnel of the Woods
Hole Laboratory. During the first year at Woods Hole he devoted
himself to the study of embryology of the sea bass. He described
the development of the sea bass egg from fertilization to the
free-swimming larva, about 160 hours old (Wilson, 1889). It
is a classic contribution to fish embryology which has not lost
its usefulness to the present day, and remains one of the chief
reference books for students and researches engaged in embryological
investigations. Another valuable contribution by Wilson was
the important discovery of regeneration of sponges from dissociated
tissue cells. Wilson's interest in the structure, development,
and taxonomy of sponges began in 1890. In 1891 he resigned from
the Bureau of Fisheries and joined the faculty of the University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, N.C., but he continued to
work on the sponges collected during the Albatross expedition
off the west coast of Mexico and those collected by the Fish Hawk
in the vicinity of Puerto Rico. He induced the Bureau of Fisheries
to established a biological laboratory at Beaufort, N.C., where
he completed his detailed study of the development of sponges
from dissociated tissue cells. Wilson's report on sponges (Wilson,
1912) opened a new approach to the problem of regeneration and
initiated many investigations conducted in American laboratories
and broad. Interest in the problem was revived in 1921-24 by
experimental work conducted by P.S. Galtsoff, first at the Marine
Biological Laboratory and later at the Bureau of Fisheries Laboratory
at Woods Hole (Galtsoff, 1925).
At the time of H.V. Wilson's separation from the Bureau of Fisheries
in 1891, the work of the Fishery Laboratory at Woods Hole assumed
a distinct pattern. One of the biologists of the Bureau was
assigned to Woods Hole "in charge of the Laboratory", or some
outstanding zoologist outside of the Government service received
a temporary appointment as "summer director". From time to time
one or several biologists of the Bureau used the facilities
of the Woods Hole Station for work on special problems related
to commercial fisheries. At the same time the facilities of
the laboratory were made available without charge to professors
of various colleges and their students or to other qualified
investigators. With a few exceptions the Laboratory was open
only during the summer and the major part of the Station's activities
were concerned with hatching eggs of marine fishes. Vinal N.
Edwards was employed as "permanent collector", helping the investigators
by his knowledge of local fauna and assisting them in obtaining
the needed material. During the years of 1893 to 1896, inclusive,
the following persons, listed in chronological order, were in
charge of the laboratory: James L. Kellogg, J. Percy Moore,
serving two years, and James L. Peck. In 1898 H.C. Bumpus was
appointed as "Director of the Laboratory", and remained in charge
until 1901. The number of biologists engaged in independent
research work varied from year to year and attained the largest
number of 61 in 1901. Also, that year, six laboratory assistants
were employed to help the Director.
After the death of McDonald, the position of the Commissioner
was occupied for two years (1896-97) by John J. Brice, retired
Naval officer. The next Commissioner was George Meade Bowers.
During the next 13 years of his administration, from 1899 to
1912 inclusive, the activity of the Bureau of Fisheries greatly
expanded in all branches, including services rendered by the
Woods Hole Laboratory. The policies with regard to the operation
of the laboratory and its availability to independent investigators
have not been formally established. Continuing the tradition
initiated by Spencer F. Baird the Bureau of Fisheries allowed
a number of investigators to work in the laboratories on various
problems of their own choice. Sometimes this created difficulties
for the Commissioner in justifying the request for funds made
to the Appropriation Committee of Congress. To overcome this
complication, Commissioner Bowers defined the Bureau's policy
regarding this matter. In his report for the year 1909 he wrote
(Bowers, 1911, p. 16-17): "The marine biological stations of
the Bureau at Woods Hole, Massachusetts, and Beaufort, North
Carolina, primarily established and maintained for study and
experimentation in the interests of the fisheries and fish culture,
have as usual been restored to by competent investigators from
all parts of the country. While the Bureau provides ample facilities
for qualified students and does not attempt to dictate the scope
and character of their researches, it is noteworthy that a large
percentage of the men of science who avail themselves of the
laboratory privileges are engaged in work having more or less
direct relation to practical questions, and in the past year
an unusual amount of attention was given on the commercial fisheries
and the cultivation of marine creatures." As a matter of interdepartmental
courtesy the facilities of the laboratory were available to
the government scientists of the Department of Agriculture,
Public Health Service, and other agencies.
Scientific accomplishments of the Woods Hole Laboratory made
by its staff and by independent investigators have been published
in many volumes of Government reports and scientific journals.
A comprehensive review of these investigations is beyond the
scope of the present historical sketch. It is sufficient, for
the purposes of this report, to give a general outline of the
research projects carried out in the laboratory and mention
the more important contributions during the period.
Scientific problems of a general biological nature were studied
by a number of eminent zoologists who were either guests of
the Fishery Laboratory or were temporarily appointed by the
Bureau to investigate a special research problem. The long list
of scientists mentioned in the annual reports of the Commissioner
of Fisheries from 1884 to 1920 contains the names of persons
who later attained great prominence and became leaders of American
biology. For some of them the work at the Fisheries Laboratory
was a starting point of their career. The following names, selected
from the annual reports of the Bureau, are associated with the
development of marine sciences at Woods Hole. The years after
the names indicate the time they worked at the Fisheries Laboratory.
W.K. Brooks (1888-90) biology of the oyster; Gary N. Calkins
(1902) protozoologist, investigation of marine protozoa of Woods
Hole region; Wesley R. Coe (1899, 1901) structure, biology,
taxonomy of nemertines; Edwin G. Conklin (1890-94) embryologist,
cell lineage and development of molluscan eggs; Charles B. Gargitt
(1902-03) taxonomy and structure of coelenterates; Francis H.
Herrick (1889-1895) biology of the American lobster; Edwin Linton
(fig. 24) (1882-1941) parasitic worms in fishes; Jacques Loeb
(1895) physiology of fertilization of marine eggs; T.H. Morgan
(1889) embryology of marine invertebrates and regeneration;
Raymond Osburn (1904) taxonomy and distribution of Bryozoa;
George H. Parker (1888-1903) fish behavior and physiology of
hearing and lateral line; William A. Patten (1893-99) morphology
of Limulus, ancestry of vertebrates; William M. Wheeler (1900-02)
free-swimming copepods of the Woods Hole region; E.B. Wilson
(1877-1886) embryology of mollusks, cell lineage; and many others.
The work of a few zoologists on the staff of the Woods Hole
Station was concerned with practical fishery problems and various
scientific pursuits. The authority of the biologist in charge,
who sometimes was called "Director" or "Summer Director" of
the Laboratory, was somewhat limited. Administrative responsibility
for maintenance of the buildings, grounds, and small boats,
as well as hatchery operations, were the duties of the Superintendent,
who took orders directly from the Washington office.
From 1898 to 1901 the Laboratory was under the directorship
of H.C. Bumpus. In addition to his other researches, Bumpus
made observations on the reappearance of the tilefish, Lopholatilus
chamaeleonticeps. In 1879, large schools of tilefish were discovered
in the waters south of Nantucket Shoals. Three years later,
multitudes of dead fish of this species were found on the surface
throughout its entire area of its distribution north of Delaware
Bay. This mass mortality attracted a great deal of public attention
and was studied by the Fish Commission every year from 1882
to 1887. Not a single tilefish was found during this period.
In 1898, however, the tilefish had become numerous again, and
the Fish Commission schooner Grampus on three short trips caught
several hundred fishes each weighing from ½ to 29 pounds. The
mortality in 1879-80 was attributed to the influx of abnormally
cold water, but this explanation has not been definitely substantiated.
During Bumpus' directorship, a new investigation of parasitic
copepods infesting common food fishes was undertaken. Little
was known at that time about this important group of Crustacea.
Charles B. Wilson (fig. 25) was invited to undertake the study.
He resolved to make it his life's work, and began a painstaking
determination and description of parasitic species. Since the
year 1899, his first summer at Woods Hole, C.B. Wilson continued
his association with the Bureau of Fisheries working on copepod
collections he made himself or those which were assembled for
nearly 25 years by the U.S. S. Albatross. The importance of
his undertaking was such that in 1901 the entire collection
of parasitic copepods in the National Museum in Washington,
D.C, was turned over to him, also the various stations and hatcheries
of the Bureau of Fisheries were instructed to collect this material
and forward it to him for identification. Being a man of broad
scientific background, he was placed in charge of the economic
survey of Lake Maxinkuckee, Indiana. Here he obtained the material
for his monographic studies published as his doctoral thesis
under the title "North American Parasitic Copepods. Part 9,
The Lerneopodidae." He participated in economic surveys of Lake
Maxinkuckee; the Mississippi River; and the Maumee, Kankakee,
and Cumberland Rivers. Between 1913 and 1923 he was economic
investigator for the Bureau of Fisheries at Fairport, Iowa,
and in the summers of 1924-27 and 1931 he again worked at Woods
Hole. Those who saw him every day in the laboratory remember
him as very industrious, patient, and at the same time a cheerful
man. During one summer he concentrated his efforts of the study
of fresh-water copepods of numerous fresh-water ponds and lakes
on Cape Cod, and was frequently seen rowing a small skiff towing
a plankton net. Playing golf was his principal recreation, and
he was a familiar figure on the Woods Hole golf course. He also
liked bowling and watching baseball, but most of the time he
was seen sitting at his laboratory desk patiently dissecting
and mounting copepods with the aid of a binocular microscope.
Among his many contributions "The Copepods of the Woods Hole
Region Massachusetts" (Wilson, 1932) is the most valuable book
for students of marine copepods. His large library of copepod
literature, probably the most complete in existence, he bequeathed
to the National Museum. Until his retirement in 1932, C.B. Wilson
was Professor of Biology at the State Normal School (later State
Teacher's College), Westfield, Mass.
In 1902, H.M. Smith was the Director of the Laboratory. The
following year he was appointed to the newly created administrative
position of Deputy Commissioner of the Bureau. One of his actions
was the appointment of Francis B. Sumner (fig. 26) as the Laboratory
Director, who held this summer position until 1910. Sumner's
repots (Sumner, 1904, 1905) indicate that in addition to the
large laboratory room with nine tables, the Woods Hole station
had 14 private rooms equipped for research. Certain parts of
the hatchery plant and the aquarium were also available to the
investigators. The permanent collection of the library at that
time comprised 16,000 titles; mostly reports of the U.S. and
foreign governments and reprints donated by the authors. A large
number of books were loaned by Brown University (650 volumes)
and 100 volumes by the College of the City of New York for use
during the summer. An author catalog of the library books was
supplemented by a subject catalog that was commenced by Miss
R. MacDonald, the librarian.
