1897] 



NEWS 67 



M 11 K. C. L. Perkins, who has been investigating the zoology of the Sandwich 

 Islands for a committee of the British Association and Royal Society has returned to 

 England. 



■&' 



The following numbers of students at the Imperial College of Science, Tokyo, were 

 recently given by Engineering : — Mathematics, 11; Astronomy, 2; Physics, 30; 

 Chemistry, 15 ; Zoology and Botany, 12 ; Geology, 14. In all there are 89 students. 



Dr Louis Grehant, Professor of Physiology at the Musi'e d'Histoire Naturelle, 

 Paris, has been awarded 4000 francs by the French Government to assist his researches 

 on the hygienic applications of physiology. 



An important change has just been made at the Spanish universities and other 

 educational institutions under State control. Foreigners are now allowed to study there 

 and to enter for the examinations, and to take degrees at the universities. 



The Shute Scholarship in Animal Morphology, recently founded at Oxford Univer- 

 sity, has an annual value of £50, and is attached to no college. The examination takes 

 place this July, and is open to all who may be in need of assistance at the university, 

 and who have not been members of the university for more than eight terms. 



The late Prof. Newberry, having left funds for the encouragement of scientific 

 research, it has been decided to apply the grant successively to geology and palaeon- 

 tology, zoology, and botany. A sum of 50,000 dollars will be awarded in the first 

 subject, on July 15, to competitors from among the Scientific Alliance of New York 

 City. 



Cambridge University has made a grant of £300 to Prof. A. C. Haddon, to 

 enable him to make an expedition to the "Torres Straits to continue his researches on 

 the anthropology of that region. He will be accompanied by other anthropologists 

 from Cambridge, and by an expert in Melanesian languages. 



The International Congress of Medicine and Surgery meets this year at Moscow 

 during August. Tli^ Russian Government has not only contributed some £8000 

 towards the expenses, but has arranged for a two weeks' excursion to the Caucasus, in 

 the course of which the mineral springs of Kislovodsk will be visited. 



A laboratory for the study of cavernicolous animals has been started by Mr 

 Armand Vire in some subterranean passages, recently rediscovered beneath the Jardin 

 des Plantes and the Boulevard St Marcel, Paris. Water is supplied from springs by 

 means of pipes. 



It is expected that the Belgiea, the ship of the Belgian Antarctic Expedition, 

 will arrive at Antwerp early in July, and that the expedition will start in August. 

 The expedition will stay from October to March on the eastern shore of Graham's 

 Land. The following year, after re-coaling and provisioning at Melbourne, it will visit 

 Victoria Land. 



A survey of the Pribyloff islands is now being carried out by the U.S. Coast and 

 Geodetic Survey. 



The Danes are charting the northern part of the east coast of Greenland, with the 

 help of some £1000 contributed from the Carlsberg Fund. 



The Rev. Prof. Thomas Wiltshire, of Trinity College, Cambridge, for many years 

 treasurer of the Geological Society of London, has presented his library of scientific 

 works to the Woodwardian Museum, Cambridge. The donation comprises about 600 

 volumes and 900 pamphlets. 



The Belgian Government has convened a second International Bibliographic Confer- 

 ence at Brussels, on August 2-4. Those who do not already subscribe to the Institut 

 International de Bibliographic may become members for a subscription of 20 francs, on 

 application to the Institut, 1 Place du Musee, Bruxelles. Among other subjects for 

 discussion is the state of bibliography of the different sciences. 



The Geological Department of the British Museum (Natural History) has just 

 obtained an interesting series of teeth and jaws of the dwarf elephant discovered a few- 

 years ago by Dr Hans Pohlig in the cavern of Carini, near Palermo, Sicily. The species 

 seems to be Elephas mnaidriensis, the largest form met with in the bone-caves of Malta. 

 It may be merely a dwarfed race of the existing African elephant, which was stranded 

 and gradually became extinct on the islands of Malta and Sicily when the land barrier, 

 which once existed in that region between Africa and Europe, became destroyed. 



A statement has lately appeared in many scientific journals that there exists on 

 the Pamirs a dwarf tribe, with dwarf domestic animals. This appears to have 



