354 



NATURAL SCIENCE. May, 



valuable seismometric apparatus, and his accumulated notes of twenty-five years 

 work were destroyed by fire in half-an-hour. Merely to state the fact is enough to 

 arouse the warmest sympathy for our energetic and genial colleague. 



Dr. William Marcet will deliver the Croonian Lectures at the Royal College 

 of Physicians in June. He will take for his subject " The Respiration of Man." 



The annual meeting of the Zoological Society of London will be held on April 

 29. The Report, which has just been issued, shows a falling off to the extent of 

 £1,300 in admission to the gardens, with a corresponding decrease of £90 in elephant 

 rides, etc. The admission fees, subscriptions, and composition fees increased as 

 compared with the year 1893. With regard to payments, on the other hand, there 

 has been a considerable decrease in expenditure, more particularly noticeable 

 because some heavy items, which properly belonged to 1892, were included in the 

 year 1893. The whole account shows an excess of income over expenditure to the 

 amount of £1, 500, and this is carried forward to 1895. The Society paid £4, 205 is. iod. 

 for provisions for the animals during 1894, spent £1,008 on purchase of animals and 

 carriage, £1,800 on publications (including the Zoological Record), and £500 on the 

 library. On the income side of the account we read the following items of interest : 

 —Riding receipts, £680 ; rent for refreshment-rooms, £762 ; garden sales, £522. 



From the sixty-third Annual Report of the Royal Dublin Zoological Society for 

 1894, we learn that the attendance at the gardens was 10,000 more than in 1893. 

 This is a surprising increase, and we congratulate the Society on the improve- 

 ment which this has made in the finances. Nine lion cubs have been born, five of 

 which were males in one litter. Three pumas were also born in the gardens. Great 

 improvements have been made in the aquarium, and among the chief accessions are 

 an orang-outang, a pair of ostriches, and a pair of South African hunting-dogs. 



The Royal Geographical Society will hold a special meeting on Monday, May 

 20, to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the departure of the Arctic Exploring 

 Expedition under Sir John Franklin. In connection with this it is proposed to form 

 a party to visit Greenwich on the same day, to inspect the Franklin relics in the 

 Museum. 



The Museums Association will hold its sixth annual meeting in Newcastle- 

 upon-Tyne, under the presidency of the Rev. Canon A. M. Norman, during the 

 fourth week of July. The meeting will begin on July 23. The mornings will be 

 devoted to the reading and discussion of papers, while in the afternoons the 

 members will inspect the Museums and Art Galleries in the city. Inquiries should 

 be addressed to Professor M. C. Potter, Durham College of Science, Newcastle- 

 upon-Tyne. 



The sixth Annual Report of the Epsom College Natural History Society is just 

 to hand. The list of members shows an increase of twenty-nine over that of the 

 previous year. We regret to hear that the adjudicators of the Fayrer Prize did not 

 receive an essay of sufficient merit to allow of the award. A number of excellent 

 lectures were given, and good work has been done in the botanical and entomo- 

 logical sections in recording the finds of the year. 



The plaster cast of the IguanoAon from the Brussels Museum, which we referred 

 to last month, has now been mounted and can be seen in Ihe gallery of Fossil 

 Reptiles in the British Museum. The growth of this portion of the collection is so 

 large, and the important discoveries made in recent years so inadequately represented 



