INSTITUTK NOTES. 



The Institute is indebted to one of its members, Mr. Wil- 

 liam R. Nevvbold, Jr., for a number of photographs and spe- 

 cimens from Panama. Mr. Newbold has been for some con- 

 siderable time engaged in the Construction Department on the 

 Panama Canal, and has been kind enough to send from time 

 to time specimens that might be of interest to the Institute. 

 Among other things received are some two dozen photographs 

 of various scenes along the Canal, some sharks' teeth, a 

 monkey's skull (with the atlas and axis vertebrae still held in 

 position by the ligaments), a number of pieces of native 

 money, soijie quite rare, etc. 



The pictures are very interesting and show that Mr. New- 

 bold has become quite an adept at photographic work, despite 

 the bad effects which he says the climate has on films. The 

 pictures comprise many views in the neighborhood of Panama 

 City and along the Canal, showing the various stages of the 

 work. In addition are a number of photographs showing the 

 houses and customs of the natives. 



Among them also are pictures of the native cemeteries and 

 the cemeteries used by the Chinese laborers on the Canal. In 

 reference to these Mr. Newbold, in one of his letters, says : — 



" Let me speak to you about a very disagreeable sight. 

 Directly beside ni}^ house there is a Chinese cemetery, and on 

 the other side a native cemetery, and opposite these again are 

 two more, one the Jewish cemetery and the other for foreign- 

 ers generally. In the native cemetery the graves are dug four 

 or five feet deep, and one out of six graves contains no coffin. 

 The bodies are laid out in caskets rented for such purpose, 

 then taken to the grave and dumped. Others are put in 

 cheap caskets and placed in niches in the wall, where they 

 remain as long as the rent is paid. When this is over-due, 

 out comes the corpse and is thrown in a heap with others in a 

 rear lot and burned whenever the pile gets large enough to 

 warrant the hiring of a man to do it and one who can stand 



