THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE 



619 



The animals are often arranged in fam- 

 ily or social groups that the student or 

 spectator can gleam something more 

 than an impression of how an isolated 

 specimen looks. Physical geography, 

 geology, botany and other studies now 

 enter the field of taxidermy. 



In preparing a new setting for the 

 African buffalo group, built in the Na- 

 tional Museum about a year ago, the 

 three animals are to be left in their 

 original positions, which indicate 

 alarm, just as they were first discov- 

 ered by the hunters, but in addition 

 they are to be represented as standing 

 on the edge of an African papyrus 

 swamp. The ground-work of the group 

 will present the effect of the marsh- 

 land where the buffalo live, the grasses 

 and plants being added, that a com- 

 plete picture of the African swamp 

 may be effected. 



Since nearly all grasses and foliage 

 are subject to decay and shrinkage, 

 with constant loss of original form and 

 color, they, like the skins of the ani- 

 mals, are especially prepared. Few 

 grasses, as a rule, can be dyed or pre- 

 served in anything like their natural 

 form, but, fortunately, to this end the 

 papyrus lends itself very well. The 

 plants having thick stems are opened, 

 and the pithy inner removed; they are 

 then bent or curved and secured in the 

 position desired, wired and filled with 

 plaster. When the plaster is set, the 

 plants are painted to represent their 

 colors in life, and grouped together 

 with other grasses to form a setting 

 for the animals. 



When the African buffalo group was 

 first assembled) as no African material 

 was yet at hand, it was decided to use 

 temporarily cosmopolitan foliage which 

 was to be found here as well as in 

 Africa. Although the artistic effect 

 proved very satisfactory, the museum 

 officials determined to have this group 

 as technically correct in every detail as 

 the lion, the hartebeest, and the rhinoc- 

 eros groups already on exhibition, and 

 finally arrangements were made whereby 

 the native African material was ob- 

 tained. Several cases of papyrus plants 



and arundo grass were secured from 

 the natural habitat of these buffalo, 

 and the animals, set in their true en- 

 vironment, will soon be Dlaced on ex- 

 hibition again. 



SCIENTIFIC ITEMS 



We record with regret the death of 

 Professor August Weismann, the dis- 

 tinguished German zoologist; of Dr. 

 Henry Gannett, geographer of the U. S. 

 Geological Survey; of Bernard Rich- 

 ardson Green, civil engineer and super- 

 intendent of the Congressional Library, 

 and of Mr. G. R. Mines, professor of 

 physiology in McGill University, who 

 died while making experiments in his 

 laboratory on the action of the heart, 

 apparently as the result of some fail- 

 ure in the apparatus. 



Professors Eoentgen, Lenard and 

 Behring have each recently been re- 

 ported to have repudiated the gold med- 

 als conferred on them by scientific as- 

 sociations in Great Britain, and have 

 donated them to the Bed Cross or other 

 relief work, and now it is said that the 

 Hanbury medal has likewise been do- 

 nated for relief work by its recipient, 

 Dr. E. Schmidt, professor of pharma- 

 cology at Marburg. 



The past and present members of the 

 scientific staff of the Rockefeller Insti- 

 tute for Medical Research gave a din- 

 ner at Delmonico 's to Dr. Simon Flex- 

 ner on October 16, in celebration of the 

 tenth anniversary of the opening of the 

 laboratories of the institute under his 

 direction. — At the celebration of the 

 twenty-fifth anniversary of the Johns 

 Hopkins Hospital a portrait of Sir Wil- 

 liam Osier, by Mr. Sargeant, was pre- 

 sented. 



The National Academy of Sciences 

 will hold its autumn meeting at the 

 University of Chicago on December 7, 

 8 and 9. — The American Association 

 for the Advancement of Science and the 

 national scientific societies affiliated 

 with it will hold their convocation week 

 meetings at the University of Pennsyl- 

 vania, Philadelphia, during the week 

 beginning on January 3. 



