THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



of its outstretched claws. The Dresden Museum having just 

 received a specimen from the Sagami Sea measuring only lo feet 

 •8 inches, of which Prof. I. Ijima of Tokyo, who sent it, wrote 

 that 'it is about the largest that usually come up,' I asked him 

 what he knew of larger specimens. He answered : ' You may 

 safely consider the Dresden specimen as one of the largest that 

 can be obtained nowadays. Larger ones may possibly turn up, 

 but that would be quite exceptional.' The specimen in the 

 American Museum of Natural History, therefore, appears to be 

 imusually large. The notice (/. c. page 26), that one in the 

 British Museum 'has a spread of 18 feet,' is unfounded, Dr. F. A. 

 Bather of that Museum stating on my inquiry, that their ' largest 

 measures only 9 feet 4 inches from tip to tip of the two largest 

 legs stretched out across the carapace.' I, therefore, do not 

 doubt that the record of a specimen with a spread of 22 feet 

 (/. c. page 26) is fabulous. 



" Dresden, April 27, 1904. 



" (Signed) A. B. Meyer." 



Remeasurement of our specimen gives 1 1 feet 8 inches as 

 the distance from tip to tip of the outstretched legs across the 

 carapace, which still leaves it the largest reported yet from any 

 museum. It seems unlikely that the spread much exceeded 12 

 feet when the animal was alive. 



MUSEUM NOTES. 



i|URING April and May a series of lectures was 

 j given by officers of the scientific staff of the 

 I Museum. The subjects are given in the follow- 

 ing list, and the lectures, which w^ere illustrated by 

 means of the stereopticon and specimens from 

 the Museum collections, were adapted to the needs of boys and 

 girls ranging from ten to sixteen years of age, and were especi- 

 ally designed for those who spend a portion of the year at the 

 seashore or in the country. Many adults, members of the 



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