1895. NEWS OF UNIVERSITIES, ETC. 437 



of birds will gradually be improved on the plan adopted already in one of the bays, 

 and in the mammalian gallery certain arrangements are contemplated which will 

 show the finer specimens to great advantage. 



The Trustees have recently purchased for the Department of Geology im- 

 portant series of fossils selected from the collections of the Rev. P. B. Brodie, 

 Kowington, Warwick, and of the late Mr. James W. Davis, Chevinedge, Halifax. 

 Mr. Brodie's collection, the result of a long and active life devoted in all intervals 

 of leisure to geological work, comprises a large number of type-specimens described 

 by various authors ; and all of these are included in the British Museum selection 

 except those in his unique cabinet of fossil insects, which he still retains. The 

 collection of the late Mr. Davis contains some very fine fishes from the Lower Lias 

 of Lyme Regis and a large number of fragmentary fish-remains from the Yorkshire 

 Coal-measures, described and figured in his own writings. 



Mr. Oldfield Thomas, whose health for some time has been unsatisfactory, has 

 received six months' leave of absence, for an extended foreign tour. Mr. E. E. Austen 

 has also received four months' leave from the British Museum in order to join a cable 

 ■expedition of Messrs. Siemens up the Amazon. We look forward confidently to the 

 time when every man on the staff will be sent out, not on leave, but officially, for the 

 purpose of studying foreign collections and life in the field. 



We are glad to note that the Treasury has generously decided to present a 

 ■complete series of the "Challenger" Reports to the Bristol Free Public Museum. 

 This is a graceful recognition of the valuable educational and scientific work now 

 being carried on by that museum, which has made remarkable progress since it came 

 under the control of the City Corporation. 



Popular lectures are, as usual, being given at the Manchester Museum. W. E. 

 Hoyle lectures on Geology, F. E. Weiss on Botany, Boyd Dawkins on Geology, 

 Burghardt on Mineralogy, and S. J. Hickson on Anthropology. These lectures are 

 aided by an annual grant of ^^400 from the Corporation of Manchester, drawn from 

 the Free Library rates. 



We have received from Mr. Hoyle another of the useful museum handbooks. 

 This is a " Catalogue of the Hadfield Collection of Shells from Lifu and Uvea, 

 Loyalty Islands," by James Cosmo Melvill and Robert Standen (price is.), and it is 

 nothing more or less than a reprint, retaining the original pagination and plates, of 

 a paper published by those authors in the Journal of Conchology. So long as proper 

 references are given and dates not tampered with, we have nothing to say against 

 such a form of re-publication. Indeed, if proprietors, editors, and authors are 

 willing, we see no reason why this useful course should not be followed by other 

 museums. Many papers are pubHshed, and readers of Natural Science especially 

 ■can call to mind no few such, that would be most acceptable to the public if 

 reprinted and sold by museum authorities at a small charge. 



The Epping Forest Free Local Museum, established by the Essex Field Club, 

 in Queen Elizabeth's Lodge, Chingford, was opened on November 2 by Mr. R. C. 

 Halse, Chairman of the Epping Forest Committee of the London Corporation. 

 There was a large attendance of members of the Club, and Sir William Flower, 

 Director of the British Museum (Natural History), was among the invited guests. 

 In the evening a formal meeting was held in the Royal Forest Hotel, and Mr. 

 A. Smith Woodward delivered an appropriate address on Local Museums. The Essex 

 Field Club, as is well known, has already established a County Museum at Chelms- 

 ford ; but it has long urged the importance of a smaller museum within the Forest 

 area, and all difficulties in the agreement with the Committee of the London Corpora- 

 tion have at last been overcome. This new museum is established mainly to serve 

 two purposes, namely (i), to afford plain information about the animals, plants, 

 geology, and antiquities of the district, and so promote a love for the out-of-door 

 study of Natural History among the intelligent visitors to the Forest, and (2) to form 



