fg^J;- NEWS OF UNIVERSITIES, ETC. 633 



dance is maintained in future years, it will be necessary for the trustees to consider the 

 question of providing a properly-constructed lecture-theatre. Professor Nicholson's 

 course this year begins on Monday, October 3, at 3 p.m., and will be continued on each 

 Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for one month. The subject is, "The Great 

 Periods of Geological History," and a detailed syllabus may be obtained from the 

 director of the British Museum (Natural History), South Kensington. 



We learn that the collection formed by Mr. Hose in Borneo has been 

 acquired by the British Museum. This collection is rich in birds, and will, it is 

 hoped, yield many forms previously undescribed or of special interest. 



The Palm House at Kew has lately been enriched by a healthy young specimen 

 of the Palmyra Palm (Borassiisjlabelliformis), a present from the Gaekwar of Baroda. 

 It has a trunk 2 feet in diameter and 4^ feet in length. Attempts to grow this palm 

 to any size at Kew have hitherto failed, though at present there are some promising 

 seedlings raised from seeds presented by Sir M. E. Grant-Duff in 1886. The rich 

 collection of Filmy Ferns has just been arranged in a new house measuring 50 feet 

 by 14, with a central path and two cases running the full length. The Museum has 

 also been enriched by a present from Mr. Charles Holme of an extensive valuable 

 series of products illustrating the uses of the Bamboo in Japan. It gives a good idea 

 of the great value of this tree-like grass, and the ingenuity of the people in 

 adapting it. 



The recent disastrous hurricane at Mauritius almost completely destroyed the 

 beautiful Botanic Gardens. The Kew Bulletin quotes from a letter of Mr. W. Scott, 

 the Acting-Director, who says: — "The sugar-canes have been levelled, and their 

 leaves threshed into fibre. The gardens at Pamplemousses are a complete wreck ; 

 the oldest and finest trees have been uprooted, and the trees that are still standing 

 are reduced to bare poles. The fruit trees have been so smashed up that I can 

 hardly recognise them. In some parts the wreckage is piled up nine feet high, and 

 it will be months before we can get it cleared away." 



The British Institute of Public Health held its annual Congress in Dublin this 

 year, under the presidency of Sir Chas. Cameron, on the 17th August and following 

 days. The first two days were chiefly occupied with the reading of papers, and the 

 concluding days with excursions. Some papers on bacteriological subjects were of 

 interest to naturalists. Dr. M. Weeney, of the Mater Misericordirc Hospital. Dublin 

 (which posseses the only bacteriological laboratory in Ireland), dealt with the question 

 as to which Bacillus, B. typhous, or B. coli-conimunis, causes typhoid fever. Mr. W. E. 

 Adeney, in a paper on the Chemical Bacteriology of Sewage, attributed the oxidation 

 of waste organic matter to the life-processes of certain micro-organisms. The most 

 important of the excursions was that to the artificial lake among the Wicklow Hills, 

 where the waters of the Vartry are impounded to form a supply for the City of 

 Dublin. 



The fifteenth annual meeting of the Midland TTnion of Natural History 

 Societies is reported in the Midland Naturalist for September. It was held at 

 Oswestry, on August 24th and 25th, under the presidency of Mr. A. T. Jebb, of 

 Ellesmere, and there was a good attendance. The report of the Council makes 

 special reference to the function of the Union as an organiser of scientific work — " a 

 central organisation, by means of which the scientific work of the more active 

 societies in the Midlands may be rendered more effective" — and then laments the 

 meagre character of the results with which it has to deal. In Botany, indeed, the 

 Executive Committee reports that no completed paper or papers of a character to 

 warrant the bestowal of the Darwin madal have appeared in the Midland Naturalist 

 daring the past three years, and the award is thus not made this year. The subject 



