36 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



Professor George Grant MacCurdy of Yale University spent part 

 of the past month in the classification of the Museum's collections from 

 prehistoric Europe. An exhibit of this material is being arranged in the 

 tower room of the North American archaeological hall, second floor west. 



A SERIES of models of bacteria is under preparation by the department 

 of public health. They will illustrate recent discoveries in the structure of 

 these minute organisms, including all the more important bacterial enemies 

 of man, such as the tubercle bacillus, the typhoid bacillus, the plague bacil- 

 lus, and the spirillum of cholera, with killed and preserved colonies showing 

 actual growth. 



The collection of living bacterial cultures has grown rapidly during the 

 year. There are under cultivation 479 cultures, representing 322 different 

 types, and forming what is probably the most complete collection of bac- 

 teria in existence, with the single exception of the Krai collection at Vienna. 

 Also 577 cultures have been sent out from the laboratory to fifty-three 

 different institutions in the United States and Canada, representing a some- 

 what unique service to American bacteriological teaching and research. 



Mr. N. C. Nelson, instructor in anthropology in the University of 

 California, has been appointed assistant curator in the department of 

 anthropology. His best-known work has been the exploration of shell 

 mounds on the California coast. He will assume his duties here next June 

 and will give especial attention to North American archaeology. 



Mr. George Borup, who was in charge of the third supporting party 

 of Admiral Peary in his last polar expedition, has been appointed assistant 

 curator in the department of geology and invertebrate paheontology. 



The Orizaba Habitat Group, which it is hoped will be completed in 

 January, promises to be one of the most attractive in the series of 

 bird groups thus far made. It dift'ers from the preceding groups in at- 

 tempting to present an impression of the faunal character of the region it 

 represents, rather than the home life of some particular species or colonial 

 gathering of birds. The foreground therefore will contain characteristic 

 species of birds of eastern tropical Mexico, while the backgrountl, with its 

 view of snow-crowned Orizaba, is designed to give an impressive lesson in 

 the distribution of life as controlled by altitude. This feature will be 

 explained by a series of photographic transparencies introduced in the 

 panels on either side of the group, and portraying the characteristic vegeta- 

 tion from the tropical forests at the base of Orizaba, through the oaks of 

 the temperate zone and the conifers of the Canadian zone, to its treeless 

 summit above the limit of life. 



