112 



Nezvspaper Biology. — We learn from School Life for April, 

 1923, that Prof. Otis W. Caldwell, Director of the Lincoln School, 

 Teachers College, Columbia University, has recently examined 

 seventeen full months issues of representative daily newspapers 

 for the purpose of ascertaining the amount of popular material 

 on biological subjects and its reliability. There were examined 

 in all a total of 492 different papers comprising approximately 

 14,000 pages. All the biological articles found on these pages, 

 exclusive of paid advertisements, and regularly recurring com- 

 mercial stock reports, were collected and classified. Mere bio- 

 logical allusions were omitted, thus limiting the collection to 

 articles clearly biological and of news or editorial value. A total 

 of 3,061 articles were thus secured, having an average column 

 length per article of over 8 inches. A study of this material 

 shows that the biological topics given greatest prominence were 

 health, animals, plants, and food. It was found that the average 

 length of articles on general nature and evolution is slightly 

 greater than that of the four groups just mentioned, but the total 

 number of such articles is relatively quite small. Fictitious, or 

 make-believe, or spurious biology is surprisingly small, since but 

 14 of the 3,061 articles were of that nature. Of the 492 issues 

 of newspapers studied no issue was without one or more bio- 

 logical articles, and these articles were found of substantially 

 the same general type in all parts of the country, with local varia- 

 tions accounted for by special local conditions. The proportion 

 of biological material to the number of pages issued monthly 

 by different papers does not vary greatly. This is taken by Dr. 

 Caldwell to indicate a fairly well recognized need and use of 

 newspaper copy from this field. 



The eighteenth annual convention of the American Association 

 of Museums was held at Charleston, S. C, April 3-9, as guests 

 of the Charleston Museum. This is the oldest museum in the 

 United States, having been founded in 1773, only twenty years 

 after the founding of the British Museum. The program in- 

 cluded exercises in celebration of the one hundred and fiftieth 

 anniversary of the museum. The Brooklyn Botanic Garden was 

 represented by Dr. C. Stuart Gager. 



