1897] NEWS 213 
Tue British Museum (Natural History) has acquired the Savin collection of 
vertebrate remains from the Norfolk forest-bed and other deposits of that coast. 
A collection of gault fossils from the 300 feet level of the shaft of the Dover coal- 
field has also been received, and we understand that the whole of the remains 
from this very interesting and important shaft will be preserved for the national 
collections, as a typical reference series for the underground geology of the S.E. 
of England. 
Tue new Botanical Garden of New York will be on an imposing scale, 
rivalling the new Zoological Garden which Dr Sclater recently described in these 
pages (Natural Science,vol. xi., p. 36). The coniferous trees will occupy thirty acres, 
the deciduous trees more than seventy acres ; the space for the herbaceous plants 
will be not less than eight acres, while the bog-plants alone will cover five acres. 
The area of the lakes and ponds will be six acres. The museum will have a 
frontage of 300 feet, with two wings, each 200 feet in length. 
We learn from Science that an important change has been effected in the 
administration of the U.S. National Museum. Acting upon the advice of Hon. 
Chas. D. Walcott, at present assistant-secretary of the Smithsonian Institute, 
three sections have been formed—the section of anthropology, with Dr W. H. 
Holmes, of the Field Columbian Museum of Chicago, as head curator ; that of 
geology, with head curator Dr George Merrill ; and of biology, with Dr Frederick 
W. True as curator. 
HarvarD Untversity has received under the will of Mr A. W. Thayer 
$30,000 as an endowment fund to assist poor students. University College, 
Liverpool, receives £7000 as bequest from Mrs Gee for the advancement of the 
medical department. It has been decided to institute a Robert Gee fellowship in 
anatomy of £100 a year and four entrance scholarships of £25 each for one year. 
Yale University receives land valued at $25,000 by the will of Dr J. T. Atwater 
of Poughkeepsie ; and the Ohio State University an estate Jeft by the late Mr 
Henry F. Page. 
Tue following have received awards from the Academy of Sciences at Berlin 
to assist them in their researches :—Prof. Engler, 2000M. (for African botany) ; 
Dr R. Hesse, 500M. (eyes of lower marine animals); Prof. H. Hiirthle, 850M. 
(muscles) ; Prof. Cohen, 1500M. (meteorites); Dr G. Lindau, 900M. (lichens) ; 
Prof. R. Bonnet, 800M. (for a work on blood-vessels) ; Dr L. Wulff, 1500M. 
(artificial crystals) ; Dr Liihe, 2000M. (fauna of North African salt lakes) ; Prof. 
F. Frech, 1500M. (geology) ; and Dr G. Brandes, 300M. (Nemertina). 
Tue Lancet announces that Prof. Engelmann, the successor of Dr du Bois- 
Reymond as Professor of Physiology at Berlin, is about to make some alterations 
in the Institute. Of the four departments, those for microscopical and biological 
work and for chemical physiology will continue with their present directors. 
Prof. Engelmann intends to enlarge the department for special physiology, and 
to share the work of direction with Dr Hermann Munk. The department. for 
physical physiology will for the future be known as the Department for the 
Physiology of the Sensory Nerves. Prof. Kénig, director of the last-mentioned 
department, will lecture upon the sensory organs during the last four weeks of 
summer, and Prof. Thierfelder, of the department for chemical physiology, during 
the first four weeks of winter, on physiological chemistry. 
Tne Fifty-Eighth Annual Report of the Royal Botanic Society shows a much 
more favourable prospect. The lease of the Gardens in Regents Park has been re- 
newed for a further term of twenty-one years. The Council has decided to open a 
school of practical gardening, granting certificates to gardeners, and the material 
