304 NEWS [OCTOBER 



On the occasion of the ninetieth anniversary of the foundation of the 

 University of Berlin (at the beginning of August) Prof. W. Waldeyer discussed 

 the question, " Does the University of Berlin fulfil the mission entrusted to it 

 by its founder 1 ?" but he confined himself mainly to the progress of the 

 anatomical department. 



From an analysis published in Science for August 4, it may be seen that 

 of the doctorates granted by the United States Universities this year, 32 were 

 for chemistry, 7 for physics, 5 for geology, 4 for palaeontology, 11 for botany, 

 11 for zoology, 15 for psychology, and so on. "It may be noted that at Johns 

 Hopkins more than half the scientific degrees are given in chemistry. This 

 science also leads at Yale and Harvard. Psychology and education are 

 especially strong at Columbia. Chicago stands first in zoology and in 

 physiology." 



According to the Allahabad Pioneer Mail, cited in Nature, Mr. J. N. 

 Tata's munificent offer to endow a Scientific Research Institute in India has 

 now been dissociated by the generous donor from the proposed family settle- 

 ment, which was one of the original conditions. 



By the will of the late Dr. Jules Maringer, the Pasteur Institute at Paris 

 will receive 100,000 francs. 



Science reports the following gifts and bequests : — $1000 from Mr. Emerson 

 M'Millin to the research fund of the American Association ; about $50,000 to 

 Yale University, by the will of the late Dr. C. J. Stille ; £10,000 to Glasgow 

 University, by the will of the late James Brown Thomson. 



We learn from the American Naturalist that Columbia University has 

 recently received $10,000, to be known as the Dyckman Fund, the interest of 

 which will be used in the encouragement of biological research on the part 

 of graduate students. 



We learn from the Botanical Gazette that the extensive botanical library 

 and herbarium accumulated by the late Prof. D. C. Eaton of Yale have been 

 given to the University by his family, and that a graduate scholarship in 

 botany has been founded by his widow. 



Science publishes the letter in which Prof. C. E. Beecher offers as a gift to 

 the Peabody Museum of Yale University his entire scientific collections, which 

 represent twenty years of personal work, and comprise upwards of one hundred 

 thousand specimens. The collections represent (1) the fauna of the Upper 

 Devonian and Lower Carboniferous in Pennsylvania ; (2) the fauna of the 

 Middle Devonian of Western New York ; (3) the fauna of the Lower Devonian 

 of Central and Eastern New York ; (4) a small series from other geological 

 horizons ; (5) about five hundred type specimens. There are hundreds of 

 specimens unique for their perfect preservation and for their careful preparation 

 to show delicate structural details. No other single collection in America is so 

 rich in series, showing the life-histories of species from the embryonic to the 

 adult state. 



A course of twelve free lectures on the " Pleistocene Mammals " will be 

 delivered by Dr. Ramsay H. Traquair, F.R.S., in the Lecture Theatre of the 

 Museum of Practical Geology, Jermyn Street, S.W., on Mondays, Wednesdays, 

 and Fridays, at 5 p.m., beginning Monday, October 2, and ending Friday, 

 October 27. 



In the Scientific American for August 12, Miss Alice Dinsmore gives a 

 lively account of Nature -study in the Summer School of the College of 

 Agriculture of Cornell. There were three departments — the study of insect 

 life, directed by Prof. Comstock ; plant life, directed by Prof. Bailey ; and farm 



