NOTES. 



287 



be made optional rather than obligatory. In 

 other words, the movement was not in the 

 direction of opposing laboratory work in sci- 

 ence, but in the direction of the extension of 

 the elective system. He therefore desires 

 this correction to be made. 



THE entertainments called the Urania 

 Spectacles that have been given in New York 

 and Boston during the past two winters are 

 very successful efforts to exhibit some of the 

 wonders of science to large audiences. They 

 consist of numerous photo-opticon views, in 

 which coloring and motion as well as form 

 are shown, accompanied by an explanatory 

 lecture. The lecturer is Mr. Garrett P. Ser- 

 viss, whose ability to make the facts of as- 

 tronomy interesting is well known to the 

 readers of the Monthly. The spectacles are 

 now three in number : A Trip to the Moon, 

 The Seven Ages of our World, and The 

 Wonders of America. Among the more 

 striking pictures in the first of these are an 

 eclipse of the sun, close views of lunar 

 craters and canons, and the rotating earth 

 as it would be seen from the moon. In the 

 second the progress of a world from a nebula 

 to a burned-out cinder is traced ; and in the 

 last the marvelous scenery of our own land 

 is depicted. 



A SPECIMEN of volcanic dust from near 

 Omaha, Nebraska, is described by Prof. J. E. 

 Todd. It was from a stratum of whitish 

 aspect, about eighteen inches in thickness, 

 found in the bluffs facing the Missouri River. 

 It has the same general characteristics as the 

 volcanic dust which has been found in quanti- 

 ty along the Republican River, in southern Ne- 

 braska, and in Knox, Gumming, and Seward 

 Counties in the same State ; but it differs in 

 being stained with oxide of iron and the 

 sharp angular grains coated with carbonate 

 of lime. This locality is the most eastern 

 exposure of the volcanic dust stratum which 

 is found scattered over the most of Nebraska. 



THE summer school has now been made 

 an integral part of the university at Cornell, 

 and will be open for 1893 with courses con- 

 siderably enlarged in scope. Without ex- 

 cluding others qualified to take up the work, 

 these courses are offered for the special bene- 

 fit of teachers. They are open to women as 

 well as to men, and the same facilities for 

 work are afforded to those students as to the 

 regular students of the university. Every 

 opportunity will also be afforded for original 

 research. Addresses will be delivered similar 

 to those given in 1892 by President Schur- 

 mann and ex-President White. The session 

 will continue from July 6th till August 16th. 



THE sixth session of the Marine Biologi- 

 cal Laboratory, Woods Holl, Massachusetts, 

 will begin June 1st and continue till August 

 80th. The Laboratory for Investigators will 

 be open during the whole time, and in it 

 twenty special tables will be provided for 



those who are prepared to begin original 

 work. An elementary course in vertebrate 

 embryology will be introduced, with studies 

 mainly of the fish-egg, conducted by Mr. 

 Lillie and Prof. Whitman, to open July 5th 

 and continue six weeks. The Zoological Lab- 

 oratory for Teachers and Students will be 

 open during the same time, with regular 

 courses in zoology and microscopical tech- 

 nique, in which students will be permitted, 

 under special conditions, to begin their indi- 

 vidual work as early as June 15th. The Bo- 

 tanical Laboratory will be opened July 5th 

 for study of the structure and development 

 of types of the various orders of cryptogamic 

 plants, giving special attention to the marine 

 algae. A department of laboratory supply 

 has been established, to fill orders from a dis- 

 tance, in which a considerable number of 

 species are kept in stock. The laboratory 

 is under the general direction of Prof. C. 0. 

 Whitman, with whom are eleven professors 

 in special branches, and other assistants. 



THE opinion expressed by Mr. Alfred G. 

 Mayer, in his article on the Habits of the 

 Garter Snake, published in the Monthly for 

 February, that snakes, as feeders on frogs 

 and toads, are therefore friends of insects and 

 indirectly enemies of leaves, is criticised by 

 Garden and Forest as a dangerous generali- 

 zation, "for, although the snakes will eat 

 frogs and toads, as well as anything else in 

 the line of small animals that they can mas- 

 ter, they also eat a great many insects, and 

 they could not, under any circumstances, in 

 justice, be called protectors of insects." 



THE valuable memoirs of T. A. Conrad 

 on the Tertiary fossils of the United States 

 have become very rare, and are practically 

 out of the market. Yet the work is of great 

 importance to students. The idea of reprint- 

 ing the work has accordingly found favor. 

 A reprint of the volume on the Eocene is 

 contemplated by Mr. Gilbert D. Harris, of 

 the Smithsonian Institution ; and the Wag- 

 ner Free Institute of Science, of Philadel- 

 phia, proposes to reprint the volume on the 

 Miocene the Medial Tertiary with photo- 

 gravure reproductions of the original plates 

 and an introductory chapter and a table show- 

 ing the present state of the nomenclature of 

 the species; the whole forming an octavo 

 volume of about 150 pages, with 49 plates. 

 Subscriptions are asked for 150 copies, at 

 $3.50 each. 



MR. JOSEPH E. CARNE, Curator of the Min- 

 ing and Geological Museum at Sydney, Aus- 

 tralia, has been appointed a geological sur- 

 veyor. 



RESEARCHES into the conditions of the lif e 

 of micro-organisms have shown them to be 

 variously adapted to considerable diversities 

 of temperature, and some of them to be 

 adapted to great ranges. Forster and Bleek- 

 rode have found a few species containing 



