70 NATURAL SCIENCE [January 



A SHOCK of earthquake was felt at Kudat in British North Borneo, as also a 

 slight tremor at several places along the coast on September 21. About the same 

 time a new island was thrown up from the sea between Lambeidan and. Mempakul, 

 opposite Labuan, and about 50 yards from the mainland. The island emits 

 inflammable gas, with a strong smell of petroleum, and appears to be increasing 

 in size. 



The Regents of the University of the State of New York have, says Science, 

 authorised relief maps of the Adirondacks and another of Manhattan Island, 

 showing its physical features before alteration by civilisation. They have also 

 issued a notice to University institutions that duplicates of these maps Avill be 

 furnished to the schools for cash or as a part of their apportionment, at a trifling 

 cost. 



We understand that Colonel Bernier will leave England on March 1, in Mr 

 Harmsworth's ship, the Windward, in an attempt to I'each the North Pole. 

 According to his present programme, he will first proceed to the north coast of 

 Siberia, and thence will journey towards the Pole over the ice. Assuming that 

 he will move along at the rate of six miles a day, he estimates that he will reach 

 it in 120 days. He will then return to Spitzbergen. 



The Pirogof Museum of Surgery and Anatomy, which was opened in St 

 Petersburg at the beginning of December, will not only serve as a museum but 

 also as a place of meeting for all the medical societies of that city. The cost of 

 the building deducted, there remains a margin for endowment from the £12,000 

 devoted to it, half of which was bequeathed by Mrs Musin-Pushkin, the remainder 

 being in the form of subscriptions. 



The Biological Department of New York University selected the Bermudas 

 as the ground for its first expedition, under the direction of Dr C. L. Bristol, who 

 has given an account in Science. Harrington House, about six miles from 

 Hamilton, was made headquarters, and a laboratory installed near Castle 

 Harbour. It is proposed to establish a station in these islands, and to make them 

 the centre for further exploration in the West Indies. Dr W. M. Rankin of 

 Princeton will report later on the collections made. 



Washington will henceforth be the headquarters from which will be carried 

 on the tropical work of the Sub-tropical Laboratory of Eustis, Florida, under the 

 direction of the Division of Vegetable Physiology and Pathology of the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture. Work can be done and experiments made at Miami, Florida, 

 where a small garden tract and a laboratory have been secured. Experiments have 

 been made in hybridising the orange and other citrous fruits, and the resulting 

 hybrids will be cultivated on this land. It is also proposed to introduce and test 

 varieties of tropical plants which can be successfully grown in the tropical and 

 sub-tropical portions of the United States. 



The new regulations for the Intermediate Science Examination of London 

 University (which are destined to come into force in 1899) allow candidates to 

 ofler any three of the following four subjects :— (a) Mathematics, (6) Chemistry, 

 (c) Physics, {d) Botany plus Zoology. A meeting of teachers of botany and 

 zoology engaged in training students for the examinations of London University, 

 thinking this arrangement prejudicial to the interests of the biological sciences, 

 thus held a meeting on November 30, 1897, to discuss the subject. The meeting was 

 of opinion that (1) zoology and botany being separate branches of knowledge, taught 

 in separate laboratories by separate teachers, and tested by separate papers in the 

 examination, should be treated as independent examination subjects ; (2) that the 

 necessary result of the new regulations would be, that students, on finding that to 

 offer botany and zoology would entail upon them the study of four subjects instead 



