MUSEUM NOTES 



213 



Thk celebration of the centennial of 

 the New York Academy of Sciences, which 

 was to have been held at the American 

 Museum of Natural History during May, 

 has been given up on account of the critical 

 international situation. The original plan 

 included a week's program, with men of sci- 

 ence from this country and abroad as guests, 

 and special exhibits at the American Mu- 

 seum. In the present crisis scientists are 

 needed at home, even if they Avere willing to 

 risk getting across the water. A one day's 

 celebration will be held, however, sometime 

 during May. At this meeting tlie emphasis 

 will be laid on working for an endowment 

 fund, which was to have been a feature of 

 the celebration as originally planned. 



Dr. SAitUEL W. WiLLiSTON, professor of 

 vertebrate palseoutology in the University 

 of Chicago, and one of the world's foremost 

 authorities on fossil reptiles, recently visited 

 the American Museum of Natural History 

 to study particular fossil specimens, among 

 them the skeleton of the giant bird from 

 the LoAver Eocene of Wyoming, brought 

 back by the field party of the Museum last 

 summer. A reconstruction of this bird is 

 now being made by the department of ver- 

 tebrate paleontology of the American Mu- 

 seum. 



Mr. J. T. Nichols is spending a few 

 weeks on the southern coast of Florida, 

 making collections for the department of 

 ichthyology of the American Museum. 



If Avar does not interfere, the anthropo- 

 logical department of the Museum is plan- 

 ning extensive Avork in the SouthAvest during 

 the coming summer. Mr. Nelson expects to 

 do reconnaissance work over a large area of 

 south central NeAv Mexico in order to com- 

 plete the survey of the ancient Pueblo re- 

 gion in Avhich glazed pottery occurs ; Mr. 

 Leslie Spier aa-III extend his archaeological 

 reconnaissance, begun at Zuiii in 1916, to 

 the drainage of both the Little Colorado and 

 the Gila riA^ers in Arizona; and Mr. Earl 

 H. Morris, a graduate student at Columbia 

 UniA'ersity, Avill proceed Avith the excavations 

 of the famous Pueblo ruin at Aztec in north- 

 Avestern NeAV Mexico. 



The meeting for 1917 of the American 

 Association of Museums is to take place in 

 NeAV York City, May 21-23, closely folloAv- 

 ing the date of the meeting of the American 



Federation of Arts in oi'dcr to ill low museum 

 representatives from different parts of the 

 country to attend both conventions during 

 the same railroad journey. At the Wash- 

 ington meeting last May, it AAas suggested 

 that the subject for consideration at the 

 next meeting should be the "Preservation and 

 Care of Museum Specimens," and papers on 

 that subject may noAv be registered Avith the 

 secretary of the association, Mr. Paul M. 

 Rea. The American Museum of Natural 

 History is to serve as headquarters for the 

 meeting. 



Dr. Bashford Dean left NeAV York March 

 7 on a business trip to the Far East in 

 behalf of the American Museum of Natural 

 History and the Metropolitan Museum of 

 Art. He Avent by Avay of Vancouver, stop- 

 ping along the route at several points to 

 deliver lectures. His original plan included 

 visits to Japan, China, and Australia, but 

 the Avar situation has curtailed this to a 

 brief stay in Japan, Avitli a return to Ncav 

 Y^'ork about June first. 



On March 26, Mr. Alessandro Fabbri, in 

 collaboration Avith Mr. Charles F. Herm, 

 both of the department of physiology of the 

 American Museum, exhibited to the scien- 

 tific staff of the institution a neAV film on 

 the embryonic circulation of the chick. The 

 pictures shoAved a heart at so early a stage 

 in the development that it AA-as trans- 

 parent, Avhich, by its rhythmic contrac- 

 tions, forced the blood into the adjacent 

 arteries; an isolated heart from an eight- 

 day-old embryo, beating rhythmically out- 

 side the body planted in a tissue culture; 

 and a minute section from the same heart 

 groAving in normal plasma. One could see 

 the circulation in the body of the young 

 embryo, and again in the large vessels which 

 bring oxygen and nutrition from the yolk 

 area; also the fine anastomoses between tAA'o 

 blood vessels- — nature's method of feeding 

 the tissues in case one of the regular supply 

 channels is cut off. Particularly remark- 

 able Avas the demonstration of rapid circula- 

 tion in the arteries and sloAver circulation in 

 the capillaries. Mr. Fabbri also showed a 

 series of motion pictures on the formation 

 of crystals by evaporation. These micro- 

 cinematographs Avill be of the greatest edu- 

 cational value in presenting graphically to 

 high school and college classes some of the 

 details of biological science. 



