470 NATURAL SCIENCE. June, 



taken by the Government in giving effect to the recommendations of the Gresham 

 Committee ; so that the delay can do no harm, especially as the matter is mainly 

 one of detail ; for both sides agree that a single teaching university for London 

 is the one thing needed. 



A MUNIFICENT benefactor, this time a private individual, has been found for 

 University College, Liverpool, in the person of Lord Derby, who has given /■io,ooo 

 to endow a Chair of Anatomy. 



The sum of / 1,000 has been placed by the Goldsmiths' Company at the 

 disposal of the governing body of the Imperial Institute for fitting up and equipping 

 a department of scientific and practical research. This will deal with the investiga- 

 tion and practical valuation of new and little-known natural products received from 

 India and from the colonies composing the Empire. We understand that this 

 extension of the Institute's activity will not be allowed to interfere with the social 

 evenings and smoking concerts, or with the special " grand illumination " of the 

 galleries every night. 



Another City company, the Grocers', has offered three research scholarships, 

 value /250 each, open only to British subjects, as an encouragement to the making 

 of exact researches into the causes and prevention of important diseases. Mean- 

 while Chelsea and Victoiia Street send out their protest, and the Russian moujik 

 naturally believes that cholera is exported to him from England. 



At Oxford, Congregation has unanimously passed the resolution: "That it is 

 expedient to establish new degrees, to be granted alter a course of special study or 

 research, to members of the University who have passed the examinations qualifying 

 for the degree of B.A., and to persons not being graduates of Oxford who have given 

 satisfactory proof of general education and of fitness to enter upon a course of 

 special study." What these degrees shall be entitled is not yet decided, nor does it 

 much matter ; to have the degrees at all is a great point gained. 



A STATION for the investigation of marine zoology and botany is being founded 

 at Cumbrae, under the personal supervision of Mr. David Robertson, " the 

 naturalist of Cumbrae." 



Mr. Thomas Brock, R.A., has finished his sketch — model for a statue of the 

 late Sir Richard Owen — which is to be placed in the Natural History Museum. 

 The statue will represent Owen in his robes as Hunterian Professor of the Royal 

 College of Surgeons, and a representation of a bone of Dinornis will be placed in his 

 hand to commemorate one of his most remarkable successes. 



The anniversary meeting of the Royal Geographical Society will be held on the 

 28th of May. The only important changes of Council expected will be the election 

 of Major Leonard Darwin as secretary, in the room of Mr. D. W. Freshfield, and 

 Sir John Kirk as foreign secretary, to replace the late General Sir C. P. Beauchamp 

 Walker. The Society's awards have been distributed as follow : — The Founders' 

 Medal to Captain H. Bower, for his remarkable journey across Tibet ; the Patrons' 

 Medal to Elisee Reclus, for his valuable service to geography, chiefly by the 

 publication of his " Nouvelle Geographie Universelle," in 21 volumes ; the 

 Murchison Grant to Captain Joseph Wiggins, for his work in the waters of Northern 

 Siberia ; the Back Grant to Captain H. J. Snow, for his maps of the Kuriles ; the 

 Gill Memorial to G. E. Ferguson, for survey work on the West Coast of Africa ; and 

 the Cuthbert Peek Grant to Dr. J. W. Gregory, for his journey and observations in 

 the Baringo and Mount Kenia district. 



At the annual general meeting of the British Ornithologists' Union, held on 

 May 9, Lord Lilford was re-elected President. The report of the Council gave a 



