282 NATURAL SCIENCE. April, 



Mr. Robert Etheridge, jun., whose appointment as Curator of the Australian 

 Museum was announced in our last October number, has been awarded the W. B. 

 Clarke Medal of the Royal Society of New South Wales for his researches into the 

 geology of Australia. 



Cambridge University has conferred the degree of Doctor in Science (honoris 

 causa) on Sir William Macgregor, Administrator of British New Guinea. 



The friends and admirers of Sir Henry Acland are taking the opportunity of his 

 retirement to solicit subscriptions towards the endowment of the Sarah Acland 

 Home for Nurses. His scientific colleagues intend to raise some memorial to him 

 in connection with the Oxford Museum, which he did so much to found. 



An important draft ordinance has just been issued in Edinburgh under the 

 Universities (Scotland) Act, 1889, 52 and 53 Vict., c. 55, relating to the Swiney 

 Lectureship at the British Museum (Natural History). Dr. Swiney, on making the 

 foundation, stipulated that the lecturer should be a doctor of medicine of the 

 University of Edinburgh. This has frequently placed the Trustees of the Museum 

 in an awkward position in their choice of lecturer, the number of M.D.'s of 

 Edinburgh who take up geological pursuits being very limited. The present 

 ordinance ordains as follows : " It shall be competent to the Trustees of the British 

 Museum to appoint to the said Lectureship any graduate in any Faculty in the 

 University of Edinburgh who has obtained his degree after examination." The 

 ordinance can be obtained of Menzies & Co., Glasgow, price one penny. 



We understand that the authorities of the Biritish Museum (Natural History) 

 have acquired by exchange a plaster cast of one of the skeletons of Iguanodon from 

 the Brussels Museum. The skeleton from which the cast has been made is complete, 

 and the public will shortly have an opportunity of examining this interesting animal, 

 for it is to be set up in the Gallery of Fossil Reptiles in the Museum. 



A further important addition to the collections will shortly be made ; the execu- 

 tors of the late Mr. Hulke have decided to hand over the whole series of fossil 

 Reptilia collected by him in the Isle of Wight and elsewhere. These will include 

 the type-specimens of Iguanodon seelyi, and some important remains of Hypsilophodon. 



The professors and assistants of the Natural History Museum at Paris held a 

 meeting on January 29 under the presidency of Professor A. Milne-Edwards, and 

 decided to hold periodical meetings, and at the same time to found a journal to be 

 called Bulletin du Museum d'histoire naturclle. The editorial secretary will be 

 M. Oustalet ; the secretaries for Zoology and Anatomy, M. Bouvier ; for Botany, 

 M. Poisson ; for Pala?ontology, Geology, and Mineralogy, M. Marcelin Boule ; for 

 Physiology and Pathology, M. Phisalix ; for Physics and Chemistry, M. Verneuil. 

 The Revue Scientifique, in making the announcement, gives the text of M. Milne- 

 Edwards' speech, from which we extract the following sentences : — "The professors 

 of the Museum have thought that it would be an advantage for our establishments to 

 draw together, by closer ties, those men who, each in their own department, assist 

 in the advancement of science. We wish our Museum to become one large family, 

 where the elder direct the way of the younger, give them useful advice, and 

 encourage them in labour often dry at first, where the young hasten to overtake 

 their predecessors, at last to become masters. We wish an intimate union to exist 

 between the professors, the assistants, the preparers, laboratory students, proba- 

 tioners, exhibitioners, correspondents, and travellers who aid us with so much 

 devotion to form our fine collections. By making the efforts of all to converge 

 towards one end, we shall obtain a considerable result, and the work accomplished 

 in common will turn out more easy and more fruitful by reason of the emulation 

 which such union will provoke. The best method for the realisation of this 

 ideal is to call together all the members of the Museum at regular monthly 



