INSTITUTE NOTES. 



A movement is on foot in the Institute looking toward the 

 division of the membership into two grades, scientific and lay. 

 For years past there has been, as a matter of fact, such a 

 division, and the proposition now is to recognize this in a 

 formal manner. The actual scientific work of the Institute is 

 carried on by a coterie of students, while the rest of the mem- 

 bers do no more than lend their moral and financial support. 

 The feeling has been growing for a long while that these 

 workers should have in some way a recognition of their 

 labors. It is proposed, therefore, to create a grade of mem- 

 bership to be known as Fellowship, to which only those shall 

 be admitted who have done real scientific work for the Insti- 

 tute. This grade of membership would, of course, be only 

 honorary, and not affect the legal status of the members in 

 any way. It certainly seems reasonable to offer some such 

 tribute of merit to those who spend so much of their time in 

 the interest of science. 



Dr. B. M. Underbill has recently presented to the Museum 

 of the Institute a collection of twenty-four pieces of broken 

 nails, screws and wire, taken from the reticulum, or "second 

 stomach " of a cow. As is to be supposed, the animal died 

 as a result of its overloaded stomach, and on post mortem the 

 cause of the trouble was discovered. One of the pieces of 

 wire had penetrated the stomach wall and into the pericar- 

 dium, setting up inflammation and causing death. The cow 

 had been housed in a new stable and it is supposed that the 

 nails and screws had been dropped by carpenters and the wire 

 chopped with baled hay. A trouble of this kind, the passing 

 of a sharp, foreign body from the stomach to the heart, by 

 reason of the close anatomical relations of the organs, is not 

 uxicomnion. Veterinarians say that it is one of the easiest 

 conditions to diaenose in the living animal. 



