MUSEUM NOTES 



277 



Perniissiou has beeu yranteil by the trustees 

 of tlie Museum for the establishment of an 

 enrollment center in the Museum building 

 for the purpose of helping in the work of 

 taking the State Census. The time allotted 

 for such service will be so arranged that the 

 work of each department will not be seriously 

 interfered with. To promote an interest in 

 gardening there is under consideration a se- 

 ries of lectures on agriculture to be held in 

 the Museum building in the near future. 



At the meeting of the executive committee 

 of the American Museum on April 18, Mr. 

 Waldron DeWitt Miller, assistant curator of 

 birds, Avas advanced to the rank of associate 

 curator. 



A letter from Mr. Miller reports his safe 

 arrival at Oorinto, Nicaragua, on March 10, 

 only one day behind schedule time — an un- 

 usual record for a country in which transpor- 

 tation facilities are limited and uncertain. 

 At Coriuto Mr. Miller was joined by Mr. 

 "William B. Eiehardson, the veteran collector 

 of tropical birds, whose long residence in 

 Nicaragua has especially fitted him for 

 efficient cooperation in carrying to a success- 

 ful conclusion Mr. Miller's plan for an or- 

 nithological reconnaissance in Nicaragua. 

 Mr. Miller writes that, with Mr. Eiehardson, 

 he called upon the President of Nicaragua, 

 and received from him personal letters to 

 the authorities residing in the localities 

 which the expedition proposes to visit. He 

 also states that in the museum at Managua, 

 the capital, he found five species of birds not 

 heretofore recorded from Nicaragua; while, 

 on the afternoon of his arrival at Corinto, 

 he observed in a mangrove swamp at the 

 border of the town a vireo of which there is 

 only one previous record for Nicaragua, and 

 which is wholly unrepresented in the collec- 

 tions of the American Museum. 



The American Museum of Natural His- 

 tory has a profound desire for a more defi- 

 nite and more cordial affiliation with the 

 scientific museums of Central and South 

 America, and hails with satisfaction any 

 step in the direction of increased friendly 

 acquaintance and cooperation. It is there- 

 fore a pleasure to know that on the Mu- 

 seum's recent South American Expedition 

 Dr. Frank M. Chapman was most cordially 

 welcomed by the naturalists connected with 

 the Museo Nacional in Buenos Aires*. A spe- 



cial meeting of the Argentine Society of 

 Natural Sciences and the Ornithological So- 

 ciety of the Plata was held, and Dr. Chap- 

 man was given the opportunity to tell of the 

 itinerary and purposes of the work under- 

 taken by our expedition. Also Mr. Leo E. 

 Miller was given the opportunity to describe 

 his experiences on the Roosevelt-Eoudon Ex- 

 pedition. Addresses were made by the resi- 

 dent scientists, Dr. Angel Gallardo, director 

 of the museum at Buenos Aires, Dr. Eoberto 

 Dabbene, president of the Ornithological So- 

 ciety, and Dr. J. M. de la Rua, president of 

 the Society of Natural Sciences. Dr. Chap- 

 man was made an honorary member of the 

 Ornithological Society, and a corresponding 

 member of the Society of Natural Sciences. 

 The friendly relations, established at this 

 time in Buenos Aires — added to those made 

 at other points along the route of the expedi- 

 tion — have already given rise to exchanges 

 of valuable material. In connection with 

 these exchanges the American Museum ac- 

 knowledges the receipt just at the moment 

 of collections of birds from the Museu Pau- 

 lista at Sao Paulo, Brazil, the Museo Na- 

 cional at Buenos Aires, and the Natural His- 

 tory Museum at Mendoza, Argentina. 



Professor Henry Fairfield Osbobn, 

 president of the American Museum, has 

 given to the press the following expression 

 of his views on the "interning" of the liquor 

 traffic: "I am supporting Avar jirohibition. 

 Alcohol Avas long regarded as of medical 

 value. It has noAV been proved by scientific 

 experiment to be a poison both to the present 

 and to the coming generation. Like other 

 heart and brain stimulants, it gives at best a 

 temporary impulse to the system, folloAved by 

 a reaction Avhich enfeebles the system in nor- 

 mal reaction and resistance and predisposes 

 it to disease." 



In conjunction with the exhibit of military 

 hygiene at the American Museum of Natural 

 History there is being shown by automatic 

 stereopticon a series of more than eighty 

 scenes from the western battle front of 

 France. These illustrate trench life, demol- 

 ished buildings, scenes from Eheims and the 

 battlegrounds of Chanijiagne and the Somme, 

 and show Adews from toAvn and country char- 

 acteristic of trench-scarred France. The 

 slides Avere obtained by the department of 



