558 NATURAL SCIENCE. sept.. 



We are pleased to learn that the Director of the Natural History Departments 

 of the British Museum, Professor Flower, has received the honour of knighthood, 

 attaining the rank of K.C.B. Professor Huxley has also been honoured by election 

 to the Privy Council. 



The Museums Association meets next year in London, under the Presidency of 

 Sir William Flower, when the possibility of establishing some closer connection 

 between the British Museum and the Provincial Museums will doubtless be 

 discussed. At its recent meeting in Manchester, the Association conferred with a 

 deputation from the Libraries Association, in reference to the proposed emendation 

 of the Acts under which Public Libraries and Museums are at present governed. An 

 increase in the appropriation of public funds for the support of these institutions is 

 desired. 



In 1S78, the Council of the Hastings and St. Leonards Philosophical Society 

 published a small pamphlet on " The Natural History of Hastings and St. Leonards 

 and the Vicinity," containing a complete list of the known Fauna and Flora. In 

 18S3 and 18S8, supplementary lists were issued, chiefly through the instrumentality 

 of the Rev. E. N. Bloomfield, of Guestling. In 1889, the naturalists of the district 

 held a meeting with some of the prominent citizens to discuss the possibility of 

 founding a museum to illustrate both the Natural History and Antiquities of the town 

 and neighbourhood. Subsequently the scheme received much support, becoming 

 gradually realised under the auspicesof the " Hastings Museum Association," and on 

 August 16 last the nucleus of a Museum was formally opened in the upper rooms 

 of the Brassey Institute. The Mayor of Hastings presided at the ceremony, and 

 speeches were made by Mr. W. V. Crake (Hon. Sec. of the Association). Mr. Wilson 

 Noble, M.P., Mr. Felix Joseph, and Mr. Smith Woodward (of the British Museum). 

 According to the prospectus, the Natural History and Antiquarian Departments of 

 the Museum are to be devoted exclusively to local specimens, arranged, as far as 

 possible, for educational purposes ; and a good beginning has certainly been made. 

 The Committee, however, are already embarrassed with the inevitable pagan idols, 

 foreign curios, and furniture blessed by contact with some famous man of the past ; 

 and unless they can devise some means of removing such " matter in the wrong 

 place," their admirable intentions will soon be frustrated. The Art Exhibits also 

 encroach much upon space that might be more profitably devoted to objects having 

 local associations. A small Zoological Laboratory is to be added to the Museum, 

 while courses of lectures and demonstrations are contemplated. 



The Annual Report of the Conservator of the Museum of the Royal College of 

 Surgeons of England, lately presented to the Museum Committee, records the 

 completion of the two additional rooms that have so long been required for the 

 expansion of the collection. Much progress has already been made in the 

 re-arrangement necessitated by the addition. In the Department of Human and 

 Comparative Anatomy the most important additions during the year are thirteen 

 skeletons and twelve skulls of ancient Egyptians, probably dating back to 4000 B.C., 

 presented by Dr. Flinders Petrie ; and a large series of various skeletons and skulls 

 of Vertebrata from the collection of the late Sir Victor Brooke, Bart., presented by 

 his son. 



An appendix to the volume of the Proceedings of the Royal Society of London 

 just completed (vol. 1.) is devoted to an interesting summary of the Society's second 

 and third Charters and a historical notice of the Statutes. There is also a catalogue 

 of the portraits, busts, and medals in the possession of the Society. 



