FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



575 



with reference to the needs of students 

 who desire instruction in the biological 

 sciences for general culture, as a prepa- 

 ration for teaching or original investiga- 

 tion, or as a foundation for the profes- 

 sional course in medicine. They include 

 in the courses in arts and sciences the 

 electives, the biology-chemistry group, 

 and the botany-zoology group, each set 

 including several classes; the four-year 

 course in biology, which appeals particu- 

 larly to students who wish to become 

 teachers or to take up special work as in- 

 vestigators in biology, and the two-j'ears' 

 course in biology, which is designed es- 

 pecially for those who desire some sys- 

 tematic training in natu^-al science be- 

 fore taking up the study of medicine. 

 Both of these courses are open to men 

 and women alike. An ample equipment 

 is provided for the biological department 

 in the shape of spacious class rooms and 

 laboratories, a botanic garden, an herba- 

 rium, a vivarium, zoijlogical and auxil- 

 iary collections, a marine laboratory at 

 Sea Isle, New Jersey, tables at Woods 

 Holl, library facilities, two serial publi- 

 cations, and clubs and societies. 



We learn from the London Lancet 

 that besides the special ward of twelve 

 beds at the Royal Southern Hospital of 

 Liverpool, which was formally opened 

 by Lord Lister on April 29th last, ar- 

 rangements have been completed for a 

 school for the study of tropical dis- 

 eases at Liverpool. Lord Lister, on the 

 occasion of the school's foundation, said: 

 " The medical student in the ordinary 

 hospital has rare opportunities of see- 

 ing these diseases, and for a man who 

 is about to practice in the tropics it is 

 essential that he have opportunities for 

 studying them here before embarking on 

 his tropical career. The possession of 

 tropical colonies makes such institutions 

 in the home country very necessary, not 

 only for preparing the colonial doctors, 

 but for the protection of the home popu- 

 lation, which is sure to be brought into 

 contact more or less with the infectious 

 tropical diseases." 



Ax interesting paper by Mr. C. J. 

 Coleman on The Electrical Protection of 

 Safes and Vaults is described in the Elec- 

 trical World and Engineer. He divided 

 the methods into two systems, in one the 

 alarm depending on the opening and the 

 other on the closing of a circuit- — the lat- 



ter of the two being the one most in use. 

 Among the curious devices mentioned 

 are cementing narrow tin-foil strips on 

 the inner surfaces of window glass, so 

 that any breakage or fracture of the 

 glass will open the circuit; the use of 

 glass tubes filled with mercury and con- 

 nected in circuit, or tubes filled with 

 water or compressed air. In reply to ques- 

 tions as to the use of electricity in per- 

 forating safes it was stated that a five- 

 ply chrome steel safe, seven inches and a 

 half thick, was burned through by three 

 hundred amperes in twenty-five minutes, 

 and holes were burned through a solid 

 block of vault steel twelve inches thick 

 in twenty-six minutes with three hun- 

 dred and fifty amperes, and in fifteen 

 minutes with five hundred amperes. 



NOTES. 



The Royal Institution of Great Brit- 

 ain, on the occasion of its one hundredth 

 anniversary, has elected as honorary 

 members the following Americans: Prof. 

 Samuel Pierpont Langley, astronomer, 

 Secretary of the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion, Washington, D. C. ; Prof. Albert 

 Abraham Michelson, physicist, of Chi- 

 cago; Prof. Robert Henry Thurston, me- 

 chanical engineer. Director of the Sibley 

 College of Cornell University ; Prof. J. S. 

 Ames, of Johns Hopkins University; 

 George Frederick Barker, physicist. Pro- 

 fessor of Physics at the University of 

 Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; and Prof. 

 William Lyne Wilson, President of 

 Washington and Lee University, ex-Con- 

 gressman, and Postmaster-General. 



The foundation stone of an oceano- 

 graphic museum, instituted by Prince 

 Albert of Monaco, was laid in that city 

 April 2.'Sth. The museum is designed, 

 primarily, to receive the large and valu- 

 able collections obtained by the prince in 

 the voyages of ocean exploration which 

 he has conducted, and to become a gen- 

 eral depository for oceanographic spoils. 

 The principal address was made by 

 the governor-general, who glorified the 

 prince's meritorious scientific career. 

 The German Emperor, who is named a 

 patron of the museum, and the French 

 President were represented on the occa- 

 sion by deputies. 



The City Library Association of 

 Springfield, Mass., has been holding, dur- 

 ing April, May, and June, an elaborate 

 and instructive exhibit of geographic ap- 

 pliances of special interest to teachers in 

 the elementary schools. The exhibition 

 included a number of sets of wall maps. 



