iS96. NEWS OF UNIVERSITIES, ETC. 69 



of winding these labels attracts the youth of Saffron Walden to their perusal ; so 

 that the ingenious contrivance has more than one advantage. Mr. Maynard, whose 

 wax models of fungi are well-known, and may be seen in the Museum of the Science 

 and Art Department in South Kensington, is now preparing a series showing the 

 various stages of harmful insects on their appropriate food-plants. The educational 

 value of this Museum to the well-known Grammar and other schools of Saffron 

 Walden is so great that we hope some co-operation between the Trustees, the 

 Municipality, the Schools, and the enlightened Essex County Council may place 

 it on a more permanent and satisfactory financial basis. A single curator in want 

 of funds is too little for the scientific advantage of the Museum, the credit of 

 Saffron Walden, or the material prosperity of the community. 



A Guide to the Norwich Castle Museum has been prepared by Mr. Thomas 

 Southwell. It chiefly deals with the collection of birds, and is cheap at 6d. 



Mr. T. M. Macgregor has presented the Perth Museum of Natural History 

 with his line collection of insects, both local and general. An account of this 

 Museum, recently opened by Sir William Flower, has been furnished us by its 

 energetic curator, and will be found among our articles. 



The Report of the Trustees of the Australian Museum, Sydney, for 1894, which 

 has recently been sent us, shows that the Museum is still suffering in all its branches 

 from the financial depression of a few years ago. No more than /'20 has bejn spent 

 in the purchase of specimens, and no collecting expeditions have been sent out. 

 " The staff still continues at the reduced strength, and the forced economies of late 

 years are beginning to tell on the efficiency of the institution. The duplicate 

 collections are almost exhausted in some groups, and no means of replenishing them 

 are available. The few hands allowed being insufficient for the proper maintenance 

 of the Museum, it may be found impossible to open the new hall and galleries to the 

 public until Parliament shall have granted sufficient funds for the engagement of 

 further attendants to clean and watch them." The cases of the new Geological 

 Hall, built in i8gi, have long remained useless owing to the absence of locks. ;^400 

 has at last been voted by Parliament to supply these necessary fittings, and the 

 collections are now being arranged in the cases, the fossils on the ground floor, the 

 minerals in the first gallery, and recent Invertebrata in the upper gallery. The 

 necessity for new cases is very greatly felt, and Mr. Etheridge thinks that he can 

 hardly find room for additions, especially in the divisions of Mammalia, Osteology, 

 and Ethnology. Circumstances, we presume financial, have prevented the appear- 

 ance of the Records of the Museum ; but, altogether, the Report is so disheartening 

 that we forbear to quote further complaints. We are glad to see that the snakes are 

 to be exhibited to the public by means of a series of casts, coloured from nature, 

 which will show, not only the largest adult forms, but also variation in colour and 

 stages of growth. The successful appearance of these casts in the National Museum 

 at Washington fully warrants this new departure (see Natural Science, August, 

 1894, Supplement). A new method of exhibiting fish has also been begun, namely, 

 " by placing the dried skins, suitably prepared, on a clear run of vertical fittings, 

 immediately within the glass front of the containing case. In preparing the 

 specimens, the latter are flattened on the unexposed side, so as to accommodate 

 them to the vertical surface." For the exhibition of the Australian Lepidoptera, 

 Coleoptera, and other insects, Mr. F. A. A, Skuse has devised a series of thirty-six 

 large cork trays held in a suitable frame-work in the wall-cases, immediately within 

 the glass. Upon the trays is placed a framed series of plates from Scott's 

 "Lepidoptera." The new arrangement of the Invertebrata by Mr. Thomas 

 Whitelegge, who has arranged 1,340 specimens of Foraminifera, Porifera, and 

 Actinozoa, is very highly commended by Mr. Etheridge. The fine collection 

 illustrating the ethnology of Australia and the South Pacific Islands has long been 

 exceedingly crowded, and an extension of the building is urgently required. This 

 collection has recently been enriched by a set of weapons and implements of the 



