1899] NEWS 75 



extent as to the course of teaching it is considered best for them to follow. 

 They live near the mosque in medressahs, or lodgings, of which there are 22, 

 each presided over by a sheikh or elder. The instruction is chiefly in theology, 

 rhetoric, logic, grammar, law, and medicine, and much obsolete and useless 

 teaching is given under these heads. Until recently there was but little method 

 in the instruction ; each professor rambled on in his discourse, ranging over any 

 topic on which he cared to impart information, and the students listened or not 

 as they chose. To encourage a more practical education, the State offered the 

 students exemption from military service and from certain taxes if they passed 

 an elementary outside examination ; but only 4 of 66 recently succeeded in 

 doing this. In future it is intended to impress on the management of the 

 mosque that each professor should keep to one subject ; that the students should 

 be obliged to take notes and pass periodical examinations. Outside lectures on 

 scientific subjects and on matters of present-day interest have also been estab- 

 lished, and about 100 students from the mosque attend these. 



The foundation-stone of a Museum of Oceanography was laid at Monaco on 

 April 25. It will house the collections of the Princess Alice, and will include 

 laboratories. 



The salary of an assistant in zoology at the New York State Museum is 

 $900, about £187 : 10s. This sounds promising. It is a pity that the notice 

 of the last examination was not issued in time for the out-of-work zoologists in 

 this country to send in their names. 



The collection of shells of the late Mr. Henry D. Van Nostrand, recently 

 given to Columbia University, is, says Science, well known among malacologists 

 as one of the most valuable of private collections in the country ; it contains 

 the larger and better portion of the land shells of the West Indies collected by 

 Thomas Bland, including many types, together with many of the rarest speci- 

 mens of the Perry Expedition. 



The Ballestier collection of shells from the East Indies made at the begin- 

 ning of this century, has been presented by the heirs of Warren Delano to 

 Harvard University, which has also obtained Mr. E. Elsworth Call's collection 

 of American land shells. 



The Gray Herbarium of Harvard University has, says the American 

 Naturalist, recently purchased a collection of Compositae of the late Dr. F. W. 

 Klapp, of Hamburg. It contains about 11,000 specimens, and will probably 

 add 60 genera, 1 500 species, to the Gray Herbarium, which previously contained 

 35,000 sheets of composites. 



Dr. Daniel G. Brinton, professor of American Archaeology and Linguistics 

 at the University of Pennsylvania, has presented to the University his collec- 

 tion of books and manuscripts relating to the aboriginal languages of North and 

 South America. According to Science, the collection represents a work of ac- 

 cumulation of twenty-five years, and embraces about 2000 volumes, in addition 

 to nearly 200 volumes of bound and indexed pamphlets bearing on the ethnology 

 of the American Indians. Many of the manuscripts are unique. A number of 

 the printed volumes are rare or unique and of considerable bibliographical im- 

 portance. The collection of works on the hieroglyphic writings of the natives 

 of this country embraces nearly every publication on the subject. The special 

 feature of the library is that it covers the whole American field — North, Central, 

 and South — and was formed for the special purpose of comparative study. 



The new building erected in the Dublin Zoological Gardens in memory of 

 the late Professor Samuel Haughton was formally opened on May 19 by the 

 Lord-Lieutenant, in the presence of a large gathering. 



The Booth Free Library Museum and Technical School Journal shows that 

 every effort is made by Mr. J. J. Ogle to widen the influence of these institutions. 



