1896. NEWS OF UNIVERSITIES, ETC. 423 



J. B. Farmer's exhibit of nuclear division in the spores of Fegatella conica was chiefly 

 interesting as showing how the processes of cell-division are governed by ordinary 

 physical laws, as though cells had no more life than soap-bubbles. The reconstruc- 

 tion of models from serial microscopic sections, by the methods that have at various 

 times been described in Natural Science, has been advanced a stage by Mr. 

 Francis Dixon's device of drawing his various sections on glass plates of a thickness 

 proportional to the magnification of the drawing and the thickness of the section ; 

 these enable one to trace the arrangement of the various internal structures, such as 

 the nerves. The wax model of an electrical nerve-cell from the spinal cord of 

 M alapterunis , made from microscopic sections in the usual manner by Dr. G. Mann, 

 was, with its many dendritic processes, a formidable looking affair. Professor 

 Liversidge, of Sydney, exibited specimens and photographs of the polished and 

 etched gold-nuggets shov^ing crystalline structure, to which v/e have alluded in 

 vol. vi., p. II. Museum authorities will doubtless be glad to have the enlarge 

 models of the lower jaw of Amphitherhim prevosti from the Stonesfield slate which 

 Mr. Pycraft has made for Professor Ray Lankester. Similar models of all the 

 unique fossil mammalian jaws in the Oxford Museum are now to be purchased. 



Dr. a. Gunther, late keeper of the Zoological Department of the British 

 Museum, has been elec'ed to succeed Mr. C. B. Clarke as President of the Linnean 

 Society, London. 



From the report of the Geological Society, London, we learn that the index of 

 the first fifty volumes of the Journal is now almost ready to be sent to the printers. 



The new president of the Geologists' Association, London, Mr. E. T. Newton, 

 has initiated a quarter-hour exhibition of objects of general interest before the 

 customary reading of papers at the evening meetings of the Association. The 

 object of the president is not the encouragement of the bringing of indiscriminate 

 objects to be named, but rather the exhibition and brief description of objects 

 instructive to the whole of the members. 



The Zoological Gardens, London, have received from Mr. E. E. Austen a 

 specimen of the Oukari monkey {Brachyurus rubicitiidiis) from the Upper Amazon. 

 The Brazilians call this the English monkey, on account of its remarkably red face. 

 It is not the scarlet-faced Oukari mentioned by Bates in his " Naturalist on the 

 Amazons " ; for that turns out to have been B. calvus, living further to the east. The 

 westward extension of B ruhicundus is as yet unknown, but the species of this genus 

 appear to be confined to limited areas. Though living in high tree-tops, Brachyurus 

 has a mere stump of a tail, so that it is easily distinguished from its long-tailed 

 neighbours. It is one of the Cebidas. 



The fine weather of last year, and various interesting additions to the Society's 

 menagerie, had the effect of increasing the receipts of the Zoological Society, 

 London, by ;^i,85i 8s. 6d. as compared with 1894. A list of the animals received 

 during the past twelve years has been prepared by Dr. Sclater, and is now in the 

 printers' hands. The number of animals in the Gardens on December 31 last was 

 2,369, of which 768 were mammals, 1,267 birds, and 334 reptiles. 



We are not accustomed to look upon the unspeakable Turk as more advanced 

 than the cute Yankee. Nevertheless, whereas the American House of Representa- 

 tives has, after an animated discussion, returned the bill for the introduction of the 

 metric system into the United States to the Committee, Turkey adopted that system 

 on March i last, and has absolutely forbidden the employment of the ancient 

 measures. The fact that the business men of Utah differ from the majority of their 

 countrymen and unanimously agree with the Turk is not, of course, due to any 

 subtle connection between polygamy and the ease of reckoning on a decimal system. 



