158 NEWS [august 



Among those who have gone Arctic exploring are Professor W. Libbey, of 

 Princeton, and Dr. R. Stein, of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey. 



Those interested in Antarctic exploration look forward with eagerness to 

 the International Congress of Geographers in Berlin, when Sir John Murray, 

 Sir Clements Markham, Dr. Nansen, Prof, von Drygalski, and others will 

 meet and confer. 



The Union Pacific Railway Company arranged in June a geological and 

 palaeontological excursion to the fossil fields of Wyoming under the general 

 direction of Prof. Knight, of the University of Wyoming. 



It is noted in Science and elsewhere that Nansen has resolved to organise an 

 Antarctic expedition for 1902, in which he will endeavour to supplement the 

 work of the British and German expeditions. 



On June 27 Prof. Virchow opened the Virchow Pathological Museum in 

 Berlin, which houses his magnificent collection of specimens. 



A pathological laboratory is to be erected at Oxford, the curators of the 

 university chest having authorised an expenditure of £10,000, in addition to 

 £5000 from an anonymous member of the university. 



According to the American Geologist, the Minnesota Academy of Natural 

 Sciences will send to the Greater American Exhibition at Omaha a collection 

 illustrating the natural history of the Philippines. 



The Dresser Collection of Birds has, we learn, been acquired by the Manchester 

 Museum. Neither trouble nor expense were spared by the author of the " Birds 

 of Europe " to make the collection as complete as possible, and more particularly 

 to make it a working collection, and numerous specialists who have had the 

 privilege of making use of it have united in expressing their opinion of its 

 value in this particular direction. In addition to the European birds and the 

 allied species from the Palaearctic region generally, it contains the materials 

 used by Mr. Dresser in preparing his monographs on the bee-eaters and the 

 rollers. As regards the extent of the collection, there are of bee-eaters about 

 30 species and 155 specimens, and of rollers 26 species with 112 specimens, 

 whilst the Palaearctic collection contains from 850 to 900 species, or more 

 according to the British Museum catalogue. When it is remembered that in 

 almost every instance these forms are represented not merely by one skin, but 

 by several showing the differences of plumage due to sex, age, and local 

 variation, it will be readily believed that the collection includes about 10,000 

 specimens. There are several types and numerous rarities, among which may 

 be mentioned two specimens of the rosy gull, whose nesting -place was dis- 

 covered by Nansen in Franz Josef Land, and two Labrador falcons. The skins 

 have all been carefully selected, and the collection has been accurately 

 labelled, all particulars as to habitat and other details being recorded. Many 

 specimens have been compared with rare types and noted as agreeing with 

 them ; others are the first or the only recorded specimens that have occurred 

 within the western Palaearctic area. Enough has now been said (we quote 

 the Manchester Guardian), to show that the acquisition of this valuable collection 

 is indeed a piece of singular good fortune for the Manchester Museum, and 

 therefore for all students of ornithology in the neighbourhood, and to call 

 forth expressions of gratitude towards the generous benefactor who has 

 rendered it possible for the museum to possess itself of such treasures. 



Considerable changes have recently been made in the arrangement of the 

 zoological collections at the Science and Art Museum, Dublin. These are in 

 two rooms, the upper having a gallery round it. The upper room contains 

 the general zoological collection, systematically disposed. The visitor is sup- 

 posed to ascend to the gallery by a staircase marked No. 1 ; this lands him 

 opposite the Protozoa. Thence he follows the gallery round from left to right, 

 viewing on his way the various phyla of Invertebrata in ascending order. 



