384 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



two lower floors there are extensions 

 of the museum to receive special collec- 

 tions, and the rest of the space is de- 

 voted to the senior class-room, senior 

 and honors students' laboratories, the 

 departmental library, and rather 

 large laboratory and storeroom accom- 

 modation for the sea-fisheries depart- 

 ment, the work of the economic ento- 

 mologist, of the marine biological com- 

 mittee and other practical applications 

 of zoology. 



The department of zoology is under 

 the direction of Dr. W. A. Herdman, 

 who was appointed to the Derby chair 

 of natural history at the opening of 

 the college. He is well known for his 

 zoological researches, especially in 

 marine biology. Readers of this 

 journal will remember with interest 

 two articles contributed by him — one on 

 the Naples Zoological Station, the other 

 on the pearl fisheries of Ceylon. Dr. 

 Herdman has not only made the Uni- 

 versity of Liverpool a center for zoo- 

 logical research, but has developed in 

 connection with it a marine biological 

 laboratory on the Isle of Man. 



SCIENTIFIC ITEMS 



Rear Admiral Colby M. Chester, 

 superintendent of the U. S. Naval Ob- 

 servatory, was placed on the retired 

 list on February 28. He will be re- 

 tained in temporary active duty in the 

 Bureau of Navigation. Rear Admiral 

 Chester will be succeeded in charge of 

 the Naval Observatory by Rear Ad- 

 miral Asa Walker. 



Professor A. A. Michelson, of the 

 University of Chicago, and Professor 

 F. Kohlrausch, of Berlin, have been 

 elected honorary fellows of the Physical 

 Societv of London. — Sir William 



I Crookes has been elected a correspond- 

 ing member of the physical section of 

 the Paris Academy of Sciences in suc- 

 cession to the late M. Bichat. — Professor 

 J. J. Thomson, of Cambridge; Mr. 

 Oliver Heaviside. of London; M. Henri 

 Becquerel, of Paris, and Professor P. 

 Zeeman, of Amsterdam, were made hon- 

 orary doctors of the University of Got- 

 tingen, on the occasion of the dedication 

 of the new physical laboratory. 



The fiftieth anniversary of the con- 

 nection of Professor Frederic Ward 

 Putnam with Harvard University has 

 been celebrated by the presentation of 

 a volume, containing autograph greet- 

 ings from forty of his former students. 

 Dr. H. C. Bumpus, director of the 

 American Museum of Natural History, 

 has been authorized by President 

 Jesup to offer Professor Putnam ethno- 

 logical material sufficient to illustrate 

 fully the life of the inhabitants of the 

 Philippine Islands, leaving him to 

 make such disposition of the collection 

 as he may think best. — At a meeting 

 held at the Mansion House, London, on 

 February 27, to celebrate the fiftieth 

 year of the foundation of the coal-tar 

 color industry, and to take steps to 

 do honor to Dr. W. H. Perkin, the 

 founder, it was decided that an appeal 

 be made for subscriptions for the pur- 

 pose of carrying out the following ob- 

 jects : ( 1 ) The presentation to Dr. 

 Perkin for his life time of an oil por- 

 trait of himself, the portrait to be- 

 come the property of the nation at his 

 death. (2) The execution of a 

 marble bust of Dr. Perkin to be placed 

 in the rooms of the Chemical Society. 

 ( 3 ) The establishment of a ' Perkin 

 Research Fund' for the promotion of 

 chemical research to be administered 

 through the Chemical Society. 



