394 NATURAL SCIENCE. May, 



We are glad to observe that a suitable inscription has been recently placed on 

 the pedestal of the bust of Sir Richard Owen, which has a place of honour in the 

 Pavilion of the Palzeontological Gallery at the Natural History Museum. This bust 

 is a plaster cast of the Hamo Thornycroft marble (1880), preserved at Sheen Lodge, 

 and was presented to the Museum by the family about four years ago. The inscrip- 

 tion reads as follows : — 



SIR RICHARD OWEN, 



K.C.B., M.D., D.C.L., LL.D., F.R.S., &C., &C. 



Superintendent of the 



Natural History Departments 



of the British Museum, 



from 1856— 1883. 



Born, Died, 



20th July, 1804. i8th Dec, 1892. 



" Accesserunt ossa ad ossa, unumquodque ad juncturam suam." — 



Ezeck., XXX vii., 7. 



We are informed by Dr. Henry Woodward that the appropriate quotation from the 

 Vulgate was selected by the Rev. Professor Bonney. 



The fourth annual meeting of the Museums' Association, which is to be held 

 in London under the Presidency of Sir W. H. Flower, K.C.B., will commence on 

 Monday, July 3, and probably extend over four or five days. The mornings will be 

 devoted to the reading and discussion of papers, but the afternoons will be given up 

 to the inspection of various metropolitan museums, under competent leadership. 



A Geological Society has recently been organised in Washington for the 

 presentation and discussion of topics of interest to geologists. The constitution 

 and standing rules were subscribed to by 109 founders at the first public meeting, 

 March 8, 1893. Its members are of two classes, active and corresponding. The 

 annual subscriptions of the first are 2 dols., and of the second i dol. Meetings 

 will be held on the second, and generally also on the fourth Wednesday of each 

 month, from October to May inclusive. The journals and bulletins of the various 

 societies appear to furnish sufficient opportunity for the publication of papers read 

 before the Society, so that for the present the Society will not undertake to publish 

 the papers presented. It will probably issue one bulletin each year containing the 

 address of the retiring President, and such other matter as the Council directs. 

 The officers, elected February 25, 1893, are C. D. Walcott (President), S. F. 

 Emmons and W. H. Holmes (Vice-Presidents), A. Hague (Treasurer), Whitman 

 Cross and J. S. Diller (Secretaries); the Council being G. F. Becker, T. M. 

 Chatard, G. H. Eldridge, G. K. Gilbert, G. P. Merrill. We should like to have 

 seen the organisation of local excursions among their objects, for field observation 

 is an essential to the increase and diffusion of geological knowledge. 



The collection of Lepidoptera (chiefly Micro- Lepidoptera) formed by the late 

 H. T. Stainton has been presented by his widow to the Natural History Museum. 

 The presentation is the more valuable as it includes the original drawings and 

 papers illustrative of the specimens. 



The Zoological Society of London has just issued its Annual Report of 

 Accounts for 1892. We are glad to note a slight improvement in gate-money (^272) 

 over 1891, which points to an increased appreciation in the efforts made by the 

 Society to render the Gardens interesting to the public. It is curious to see a 

 falling-off in the elephant rides of ^3 igs. 4d., but still the comfortable amount of 



