'^-^- NOTES AND COMMENTS. 735 



of the work. Commenced under the editorship of Mr. LesUe Stephen, 

 this great work is now under the direction of Mr. Sidney Lee, aided 

 by a large number of contributors ; and it is calculated that the 

 series will be completed in about 50 volumes. Up to the present time 

 the volumes have appeared at quarterly intervals with unbroken 

 punctuality ; and the completed work will, it is estimated, contain 

 at least thirty thousand articles. Lists of the names intended to 

 appear are inserted from time to time in the Athetiaum, so that the 

 Editors have spared no pains to render their undertaking as complete 

 as possible. 



Islington, although the most thickly-populated parish in the 

 United Kingdom, remains far behind many smaller parishes and pro- 

 vincial towns in the matter of educational institutions. It possesses 

 no Free Library, no Public Museum, and no Technical Institute. 

 Efforts, however, are being made to establish a Northern Polytechnic 

 Institute, and a meeting was held on November 10, in the Higlibury 

 Athenaeum, to further the project. The Charity Commissioners 

 have promised an endowment of ;^i,50o per annum, and the Trustees 

 of the Parochial Charities a further sum of ;^500 per annum ; but 

 these endowments, for maintenance, will not of course be paid until 

 the buildings are erected. A freehold site of nearly two acres has 

 been acquired near the HoUoway railway-station, and upon this site 

 it is proposed to erect a large hall, to be available for lectures, 

 concerts, meetings, industrial exhibitions, &c. ; a gymnasium, 

 museum, club-rooms, library and reading-rooms, class-rooms, 

 laboratory and workshops. To complete the work ;^i 5,000 is still 

 wanted, but surely so important a parish will not be content to 

 remain any longer " behind the times," and will heartily contribute the 

 sum, which amounts to less than a shilling per head of the population. 



There are some excellent cautions from the pen of Mr. W. F. 

 Kirby in Sciejice for October 28 on " Type-specimens," and "Type- 

 figures " in Entomology. Mr. Kirby points out the difficulties to be 

 encountered in identifying the specimen on which the original de- 

 scription was based, and remarks on the probability of the replacement 

 of a damaged type by a better specimen, not "always of the same 

 species. The possible interchange of labels, so likely to occur in the 

 insecta, where labels must always be more or less loose and unfixed, 

 is also referred to, and some words of praise for the general accuracy 

 of Fabricius' work close a too brief article. 



Apropos of Mr. Britten's article in the October number of 

 Natural Science, those who' wish to follow the subject further may 

 be glad to know that Botanical Nomenclature formed the principal 



