70 NATURAL SCIENCE [Juny 
Tue books bearing on lichens and the dried specimens belonging to the late Dr J. 
Miiller, generally known as Miiller-Argau, became at his death the property of the 
Boissier Herbarium, at Chambésy near Geneva. Following the example of the trustees 
of another important lichenological library, the ‘‘ Tuckerman Memorial Library” at 
Amherst College, Massachusetts, the directors of the Boissier herbarium have instituted 
the ‘‘ Foundation Miiller-Argau,” and the curator, M. Eugene Autran, now appeals to 
botanists generally for copies of publications bearing on lichens which have appeared 
since Miiller’s death, or may hereafter appear. Also that specimens of new or rare 
species, or ‘‘ materials for morphological and biological research” may be deposited in 
the Lichenotheca Universalis Miiller-Argau, in which is included the herbarium of the 
Bernese F, Schaerer (1785-1853). Gifts will be acknowledged in the Bulletin of the 
Boissier herbarium. 
In connection with the Autumn Meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute at Cardiff, on 
August 3rd to 6th, Professor Herman Wedding of the Berlin School of Mines has issued 
a circular letter asking for subscriptions towards establishing a Central Laboratory for 
the Testing of Iron and Steel. Such a Laboratory would be founded at Zurich under 
the auspices of the International Society for the Unification of the Methods of Testing 
Materials of Construction, which was formed in 1895, and the proceedings at which were 
reported in the Journal of the Iron and Steel Institute for 1895. The Secretary of the 
Institute, Bennet H. Brough, has consented to receive the names of those who are 
interested. 
Tue Radcliffe Library at Oxford is known to scientific men for its wealth in 
their peculiar literature, and to librarians for the excellence of its arrangements. Such 
libraries grow rapidly nowadays. Want of room long felt has urged the Drapers’ Com- 
pany to offer to erect a new building, from plans by Mr T. G. Jackson, at a cost of 
£15,000. The offer has been gratefully accepted by the University, which proposes to 
transfer the space thus gained in the museum to the medical school, and especially to 
start a library of pathology. 
THE new museum at Winchester College, built as a memorial of the quingentenary of 
the school’s foundation, was formally opened on June 16, 1897. There was an interest- 
ing exhibit of Wykehamical antiquities, and the art department made a fine show, but 
the arrangement of the natural history collections has hardly begun. When these last 
are more advanced, we shall hope to give a detailed account of the building and its 
contents in our series: Museums of Public Schools. 
THE first annual meeting of the South-Eastern Union of Scientific Societies was held 
at Tunbridge Wells at the end of May. The Rey. T. R. R. Stebbing presided, and 
delivered the inaugural address. He dealt with the changes in the attitude of the 
public mind towards scientific research within modern times. Mr W. Cole contributed 
the first paper on the objects and methods of local museums, referring especially to the 
new Epping Forest museum. Prof. Boulger next discussed the duties of the com- 
mittees of Field Clubs. Prof. Seeley described a geological section in the New 
Athletic Ground at Tunbridge Wells, showing current-bedding in clay. ‘‘ The Search 
for Coal in the South-East of England,” the subject of a paper by Mr H. E. Turner, led 
to a long and interesting discussion. The Mayor of Tunbridge Wells extended his 
hospitality to the assembled delegates, and an interesting geological excursion ter- 
minated the proceedings. 
