158 NEWS [AUGUST 
Among those who have gone Arctic exploring are Professor W. Libbey, of 
Princeton, and Dr. R. Stein, of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey. 
Those interested in Antarctic exploration look forward with eagerness to 
the International Congress of Geographers in Berlin, when Sir John Murray, 
Sir Clements Markham, Dr. Nansen, Prof. von Drygalski, and others will 
meet and confer. 
The Union Pacific Railway Company arranged in June a geological and 
palaeontological excursion to the fossil fields of Wyoming under the general 
direction of Prof. Knight, of the University of Wyoming. 
It is noted in Sczence and elsewhere that Nansen has resolved to organise an 
Antarctic expedition for 1902, in which he will endeavour to supplement the 
work of the British and German expeditions. 
On June 27 Prof. Virchow opened the Virchow Pathological Museum in 
Berlin, which houses his magnificent collection of specimens. 
A pathological laboratory is to be erected at Oxford, the curators of the 
university chest having authorised an expenditure of £10,000, in addition to 
£5000 from an anonymous member of the university. 
According to the American Geologist, the Minnesota Academy of Natural 
Sciences will send to the Greater American Exhibition at Omaha a collection 
illustrating the natural history of the Philippines. 
The Dresser Collection of Birds has, we learn, been acquired by the Manchester 
Museum. Neither trouble nor expense were spared by the author of the “ Birds 
of Europe” to make the collection as complete as possible, and more particularly 
to make it a working collection, and numerous specialists who have had the 
privilege of making use of it have united in expressing their opinion of its 
value in this particular direction. In addition to the European birds and the 
allied species from the Palaearctic region generally, it contains the materials 
used by Mr. Dresser in preparing his monographs on the bee-eaters and the 
rollers. As regards the extent of the collection, there are of bee-eaters about 
30 species and 155 specimens, and of rollers 26 species with 112 specimens, 
whilst the Palaearctic collection contains from 850 to 900 species, or more 
according to the British Museum catalogue. When it is remembered that in 
almost every instance these forms are represented not merely by one skin, but 
by several showing the differences of plumage due to sex, age, and local 
variation, it will be readily believed that the collection includes about 10,000 
specimens. There are several types and numerous rarities, among which may 
be mentioned two specimens of the rosy gull, whose nesting-place was dis- 
covered by Nansen in Franz Josef Land, and two Labrador falcons. The skins 
have all been carefully selected, and the collection has been accurately 
labelled, all particulars as to habitat and other details being recorded. Many 
specimens have been compared with rare types and noted as agreeing with 
them ; others are the first or the only recorded specimens that have occurred 
within the western Palaearctic area. Enough has now been said (we quote 
the Manchester Guardian), to show that the acquisition of this valuable collection 
is indeed a piece of singular good fortune for the Manchester Museum, and 
therefore for all students of ornithology in the neighbourhood, and to call 
forth expressions of gratitude towards the generous benefactor who has 
rendered it possible for the museum to possess itself of such treasures. 
Considerable changes have recently been made in the arrangement of the 
zoological collections at the Science and Art Museum, Dublin. These are in 
two rooms, the upper having a gallery round it. The upper room contains 
the general zoological collection, systematically disposed. The visitor is sup- 
posed to ascend to the gallery by a staircase marked No. 1; this lands him 
opposite the Protozoa. Thence he follows the gallery round from left to right, 
viewing on his way the various phyla of Invertebrata in ascending order. 
