1897] NEWS 213 



The British Museum (Natural History) has acquired the Savin collection of 

 vertebrate remains from the Norfolk forest-bed and other deposits of that coast. 

 A collection of gault fossils from the 300 feet level of the shaft of the Dover coal- 

 field has also been received, and Ave understand that the whole of the remains 

 from this very interesting and important shaft will be preserved for the national 

 collections, as a typical reference series for the underground geology of the S.E. 

 of England. 



The new Botanical Garden of New York will be on an imposing scale, 

 rivalling the new Zoological Garden which Dr Sclater recently described in these 

 pages (Natural Science,\ol. xi., p. 36). The coniferous trees will occupy thirty acres, 

 the deciduous trees more than seventy acres ; the space for the herbaceous plants 

 will be not less than eight acres, while the bog-plants alone will cover five acres. 

 The area of the lakes and ponds will be six acres. The museum will have a 

 frontage of 300 feet, with two wings, each 200 feet in length. 



We learn from Science that an important change has been effected in the 

 administration of the U.S. National Museum. Acting upon the advice of Hon. 

 Chas. D. Walcott, at present assistant-secretary of the Smithsonian Institute, 

 three sections have been formed — the section of anthropology, with Dr W. H. 

 Holmes, of the Field Columbian Museum of Chicago, as head curator ; that of 

 geology, with head curator Dr George Merrill ; and of biology, with Dr Frederick 

 W. True as curator. 



Harvard University has received under the will of Mr A. W. Thayer 

 $30,000 as an endowment fund to assist poor students. University College, 

 Liverpool, receives £7000 as becpxest from Mrs Gee for the advancement of the 

 medical department. It has been decided to institute a Bobert Gee fellowship in 

 anatomy of £100 a year and four entrance scholarships of £25 each for one year. 

 Yale University receives land valued at $25,000 by the will of Dr J. T. Atwater 

 of Foughkeepsie ; and the Ohio State University an estate left by the late Mr 

 Henry F. Page. 



The following have received awards from the Academy of Sciences at Berlin 

 to assist them in their researches : — Prof. Engler, 2000M. (for African botany) ; 

 Dr B. Hesse, 500M. (eyes of lower marine animals) ; Prof. H. Hiirthle, 850M. 

 (muscles) ; Prof. Cohen, 1500M. (meteorites) ; Dr G. Lindau, 900M. (lichens) ; 

 Prof. B. Bonnet, 800M. (for a work on blood-vessels) ; Dr L. Wulff, 1500M. 

 (artificial crystals) ; Dr Liihe, 2000M. (fauna of North African salt lakes) ; Prof. 

 F. Freeh, 1500M. (geology) ; and Dr G. Brandes, 300M. (Nemertina). 



The Lancet announces that Prof. Engelmann, the successor of Dr du Bois- 

 Beymond as Professor of Physiology at Berlin, is about to make some alterations 

 in the Institute. Of the four departments, those for microscopical and biological 

 work and for chemical physiology will continue with their present directors. 

 Prof. Engelmann intends to enlarge the department for special physiology, and 

 to share the work of direction with Dr Hermann Munk. The department for 

 physical physiology will for the future be known as the Department for the 

 Physiology of the Sensory Nerves. Prof. Konig, director of the last-mentioned 

 department, will lecture upon the sensory organs during the last four weeks of 

 summer, and Prof. Thierfelder, of the department for chemical physiology, during 

 the first four weeks of winter, on physiological chemistry. 



The Fifty-Eighth Annual Beport of the Boyal Botanic Society shows a much 

 more favourable prospect. The lease of the Gardens in Begents Park has been re- 

 newed for a further term of twenty-one years. The Council has decided to open a 

 school of practical gardening, granting certificates to gardeners, and the material 



