224 NATURAL SCIENCE. October. 



the quality ? Few wish better to this hardworking and jubilant 

 society than we do, in proof whereof we present them with a key 

 to their perplexities in the reminder that palaeontography is not 

 always palaeontology. 



Wanted — A Lecture Theatre. 



The Swiney Lectures, under the auspices of the Trustees of the 

 British Museum, are this year to be delivered by Dr. R. H. Traquair, 

 who has announced for his subject " The Geological History of 

 Vertebrate Animals." 



The lectures will be given at 5 p.m. on the Mondays, Wednesdays 

 and Fridays of October, beginning on October 5, in the lecture 

 theatre at the South Kensington Museum of Science and Art, since 

 the Natural History Museum, with which they are connected and 

 whose specimens they are supposed to illustrate, is still without that 

 much-needed addition. Such a convenience is more needed at this 

 museum than at most, for, as is well known, no specimens can be 

 removed from its walls for the illustration of any lectures or 

 demonstrations whatever. What a contrast is, say, the Hamburg 

 Museum, which has an excellently constructed theatre, in which 

 courses of lectures on all manner of scientific subjects are given right 

 through the winter months ! The curators of this museum take their 

 share in lecturing, and endeavour .to co-operate with the various 

 educational institutions and learned bodies of the town. Can anyone 

 suppose that the museum loses by this ? 



With us, however, the vast treasures of a national institution 

 remain a closed book to those who support them, while the 

 authorities of many of our local museums recognise their educational 

 duties and, by free lectures, instruct the public in their own property. 

 At Manchester, for instance, lectures commence on October 24 with 

 the geological history of the district round Manchester, by Professor 

 Boyd Dawkins, and are continued by Professor Hickson, November 

 14, on the inhabitants of the seas ; by Professor Weiss, January 

 16, on economic botany; by Dr. Burghardt, February 6, on soils, 

 their nature and origin, and by Mr. Hoyle, Boxing Day, Easter and 

 Whit Mondays, on birds. 



Fruits of Travel. 



The results of the travels of Dr. Forsyth Major and Mr. Alphonse 

 Robert, during the past twenty-two months in Madagascar, have 

 been most interesting and important from a zoological point of view. 

 The districts traversed were Imerina, Betsileo and Tanala. Work in 

 the swamps can only be done at most for three months in the year, so 

 it was not possible to do much systematic digging. The travellers 

 were, however, rewarded by a fine series of Aspyornis remains, which 

 comprised all the important parts of the skeleton and several skulls. 



