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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science was held on April 17. 

 The annual meeting will be held at 

 Pittsburgh, beginning on June 30. 



The portrait of Benjamin Franklin, 

 executed by Gainsborough at the time 

 of the signing of the Treaty of Paris, 

 and lately given to the University of 

 Pennsylvania by the class of 1852, has 

 been hung in the University Library. 

 — A memorial bronze tablet has been 

 placed on the Albany (N. Y.) Academy 

 in memory of Joseph Henry, stating 

 that his experiments in electricity were 

 made in that building while he was 

 acting as professor of mathematics. 



The British National Physical Lab- 

 oratory was formally opened on March 

 19. Sir William Huggins, president of 

 the Royal Society, presided, and 

 addresses were made by the Prince of 

 Wales, Lord Rayleigh, Lord Kelvin and 

 others. — Professor Emil v. Behring 

 (Marburg) will give the amount of the 

 Nobel prize recently awarded him 

 ($40,000) to the Prussian State for the 

 permanent endowment of the Institute 

 of Experimental Therapeutics founded 

 by him in the University of Marburg. 

 The gift is to be devoted to the prosecu- 

 tion on a large scale of the researches 



on serum initiated by Professor Behr- 

 ing. — Lord Walsingham has given to 

 the British Museum (Natural History) 

 his collection of butterflies and moths. 

 This collection of microlepidoptera con- 

 tains over 200,000 specimens, and is 

 probably the largest and most valuable 

 in the world. It includes the Zellar, 

 Hoffman, Christoph and other collec- 

 tions, and contains many type speci- 

 mens. Lord Walsingham has himself 

 published numerous monographs on the 

 microlepidoptera. — An anonymous gift 

 of $20,000, for the benefit of the Har- 

 vard College Observatory, has been re- 

 ceived from a friend of the director, 

 Professor Edward C. Pickering. 



Mr. Alexander Agassiz and his 

 party have returned to America, from 

 their exploration of the Maldives. The 

 principal work done was the sounding 

 ox the channels between the lagoons 

 and the development of the plateau on 

 which the atolls of the Maldives have 

 been formed. — Dr. D. T. MacDougal 

 has returned from Arizona and Sonora 

 with an extensive collection of giant 

 cacti and other large xerophytic plants, 

 which are being installed in the horti- 

 cultural houses of the New York 

 Botanical Garden. 



