1888.] MICEOSCOPICAL JOUENAL. 177 



unnoticed and unanswered. We recall the wonder aroused last summer as 

 our astonished eyes rested, in a New York Elevated Railroad station, upon a 

 painting purporting to represent a monster which inhabits the Croton water. 

 This creature is an animal not yet known to science and whose discovery 

 would puzzle every naturalist, for it united the head of a vertebrate with the 

 body of a scorpion and the tail of a class as yet undiscovered. 



A company, in disregard of the distinction beween a food and a poison, 

 advertise Roach Food. We hardly think that it is necessary to nourish 

 roaches, for, as far as we have observed, they thrive well enough without our 

 assistance. A sign which published a parallel blunder in spelling would 

 appear ridiculous. 



Years ago we paid five cents to look into a street-corner microscope and 

 espy the animalcules in a drop of drinking water. In later years we tried 

 hard to duplicate the scene there observed, but invariably found drinking 

 water to be totally free from monsters, and could only match the instance by 

 water from the most putrid source. 



o 



Correspondents will please note that the Editor's address is Hamline, Minn. 



NOTES. 



University of Minnesota Medical School. — The Board of Regents has established 

 a medical department in connection with the university. The department is located 

 at Minneapolis and is to be a high-grade school, embracing the main features of the 

 medical department of the Northwestern University, Harvard, the University of Mich- 

 igan, and the University of Pennsylvania. This does not increase the number of 

 Schools in Minnesota, but, upon the contrary, reduces the number. The Minnesota 

 Hospital College and the St. Paul Medical College cease to exist, and several of the 

 faculty of each school are elected to positions in the new school. This action is largely 

 in response to the wishes of the profession of the State. The faculty will be in sym- 

 pathy with higher medical education, and work in harmony with the new medical prac- 

 tice act. A committee, consisting of the President of the State Medical Society, the 

 President of the State "Board of Health, the President of the State Board of Medical 

 Examiners, the President of the University, the Dean of the Medical Department, 

 nominated the faculty for the new department. The committee will secure the best 

 men at their command. Professor C. J. Bell, of the Johns Hopkins University, the 

 only eastern man in the faculty, is elected to the Professorship of Chemistry. The 

 University is very amply endowed in lands by the State, and by maintaining a high 

 curriculum for its medical department it will undoubtedly enlist the good wishes and 

 support of the profession of the Northwest. 



Hayden Memorial Geological Fund. — Mrs. Emma W. Hayden has given the Acad- 

 emy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia $2,500 to provide a bronze medal, and a bal- 

 '^ice of cash, to be awarded annually to competing naturalists from any country as a 

 P'^ze for the best geological research. 



^O". nted objects. — Miss M. A. Booth, of Longmeadow, Mass., has sent a list of the 

 ° J^ 'which she offers for sale at a very low price. We have examined many of 



er m .^^g ^^^ i^^^ them entirely satisfactory. Diatoms from many different locali- 

 '^r Th ^ff^^^^' ^'^'^ many animal and vegetable preparations. Any who arepurchas- 

 mg sua ,,-Q^ material will find it worth while to look through the list. 



V^\^ > of Botany. — The first volume of the new botanical serial of this title has re- 



. y ^^n completed and must be recognized as taking a rank among the very best. 



con air.g thirty-one original communications, many of them extended articles. 



ese are illustrated by i8 plates, in part colored, and 6 wood-cuts. Besides the 



f '''^ ^^ °^ original matter the Annals furnish a very complete record of botanical 



mtorrnatijm. q^^ department records the death of botanical students, with a bibli- 



^^^\1 1 ''ide) of their works. Another records by title the names of all books and 



pamphlets ani^ ^y periodical literature classified under the name of the journals in 



wnich articles appear. 



