December 1898] NE WS 4 « '» .' \ 



it consists of living fishes, will be of great value not only to the zoological depart- 

 ment, but also to the College of Forestry, in which a course in pisciculture and 

 venery is to be introduced. Duplicates of this collection are to be presented to 

 other institutions. 



Provost Harrison, of the University of Pennsylvania, has been elected 

 president of the Wistar Institute of Anatomy, in succession to the late Dr 

 William Pepper. 



The British Institute of Preventive .Medicine has recently assigned a large 

 laboratory at Chelsea to research and teaching in technical bacteriology ; it will 

 be named the Hansen Laboratory and be under the direction of Dr G. Harris 

 .Morris. The formal opening of the Institute will take place early next year. 



According to Science, the University of Pennsylvania and the Academy of 

 Natural 'Sciences have received from Alaska nearly 13,000 specimens, secured 

 near Point Barrow by an expedition under the management of E. A. M'llhenny 

 of Louisiana, fitted out and conducted by N. G. Buxton of Ohio and W. E. 

 Snyder of Wisconsin. The zoological and botanical specimens go to the 

 Academy, the ethnological to the University. 



Mr Alan Owston of Yokohama has recently sent to this country a 

 magnificent collection of hexactinellid sponges from the seas of Japan. Most of 

 these have been purchased by the Trustees of the British Museum, but a fair 

 number have gone to Oxford. Among the specimens are many studied by 

 Professor Ijima for the monograph that he is writing on the group. 



Mr Michael Lakin's donation of a large Liassic Ichthyosaurus to the British 

 Museum, already announced in these pages, has necessitated a considerable re- 

 arrangement of the existing collection. We understand that the old cases are to 

 be removed, while the fine slabs containing these fossils will be simply covered 

 with glass and exhibited upon the wall. Space is to be gained by raising a 

 number of the specimens above the top of the present wall-cases. 



Dr Jonathan Hutchinson, whose educational museum at Haslemere is well 

 known, is starting a similar establishment at his native town of Selby in York- 

 shire. The building has already made considerable progress. 



On October 5, a new natural history museum was opened at King Williams 

 Town, Cape Colony. 



The U.S. Department of Agriculture has sent Mr M. A. Carleton to Russia to 

 study cereals. 



The New York Botanical Gardens makes rapid progress. The museum build- 

 ing is complete up to the second storey, the skeleton of the whole being in place. 

 The planting of the border will, says Science, be completed during the autumn. 

 This will be about two miles long, and will contain some three hundred and fifty- 

 varieties of trees and shrubs. 



A fifth International Congres.- of Hydrology, Chinatology, and Geology was 

 held at Luttich from September 25 to October 3. 



The Sixth International Otological Congress will beheld in London at the 

 Hall of the Royal Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons, from Augusl 8th to 12th 

 of next year. The last meeting of the Congress was held three years ago at 

 Florence, under the presidency of Professor Grazzi. 



The International Conference on the Bibliography of Scientific Literature 

 met at Burlington House, London, in the rooms of the Society of Antiquaries on 

 October 11-13. It was attended by the following delegates : — Austria, Professors 

 L. Boltzmann and K. Weiss ; Belgium, Chevalier Descainps and Messrs P. Otlet 

 and H. La Fontaine ; France, Prof. G. Darboux, Dr J. Deniker, and Mr E. 

 Mascart; Germany, Prof. Klein of Gottingen.; Hungary, Drs A. Heller and 



