304 NEWS [ocroBER 
On the occasion of the ninetieth anniversary of the foundation of the 
University of Berlin (at the beginning of August) Prof. W. Waldeyer discussed 
the question, ‘‘ Does the University of Berlin fulfil the mission entrusted to it 
by its founder?” but he confined himself mainly to the progress of the 
anatomical department. 
From an analysis published in Sczence for August 4, it may be seen that 
of the doctorates granted by the United States Universities this year, 32 were 
for chemistry, 7 for physics, 5 for geology, 4 for palaeontology, 11 for botany, 
11 for zoology, 15 for psychology, and so on. “It may be noted that at Johns 
Hopkins more than half the scientific degrees are given in chemistry. This 
science also leads at Yale and Harvard. Psychology and education are 
especially strong at Columbia. Chicago stands first in zoology and in 
physiology.” 
According to the Allahabad Pzoneer Mail, cited in Nature, Mr. J. N. 
Tata’s munificent offer to endow a Scientific Research Institute in India has 
now been dissociated by the generous donor from the proposed family settle- 
ment, which was one of the original conditions. 
By the will of the late Dr. Jules Maringer, the Pasteur Institute at Paris 
will receive 100,000 francs. 
Science reports the following gifts and bequests :—S1000 from Mr. Emerson 
M‘Millin to the research fund of the American Association ; about $50,000 to 
Yale University, by the will of the late Dr. C. J. Stillé; £10,000 to Glasgow 
University, by the will of the late James Brown Thomson. 
We learn from the American Naturalist that Columbia University has 
recently received $10,000, to be known as the Dyckman Fund, the interest of 
which will be used in the encouragement of biological research on the part 
of graduate students. 
We learn from the Botanical Gazette that the extensive botanical library 
and herbarium accumulated by the late Prof. D. C. Eaton of Yale have been 
given to the University by his family, and that a graduate scholarship in 
botany has been founded by his widow. 
Science publishes the letter in which Prof. C. E. Beecher offers as a gift to 
the Peabody Museum of Yale University his entire scientific collections, which 
represent twenty years of personal work, and comprise upwards of one hundred 
thousand specimens. The collections represent (1) the fauna of the Upper 
Devonian and Lower Carboniferous in Pennsylvania; (2) the fauna of the 
Middle Devonian of Western New York ; (3) the fauna of the Lower Devonian 
of Central and Eastern New York; (4) a small series from other geological 
horizons; (5) about five hundred type specimens. There are hundreds of 
specimens unique for their perfect preservation and for their careful preparation 
to show delicate structural details. No other single collection in America is so 
rich in series, showing the life-histories of species from the embryonic to the 
adult state. 
A course of twelve free lectures on the “Pleistocene Mammals” will be 
delivered by Dr. Ramsay H. Traquair, F.R.S., in the Lecture Theatre of the 
Museum of Practical Geology, Jermyn Street, S.W., on Mondays, Wednesdays, 
and Fridays, at 5 p.m., beginning Monday, October 2, and ending Friday, 
October 27. 
In the Scientific American for August 12, Miss Alice Dinsmore gives a 
lively account of Nature-study in the Summer School of the College of 
Agriculture of Cornell. There were three departments—the study of insect 
life, directed by Prof. Comstock ; plant life, directed by Prof. Bailey ; and farm 
