July 19, 1894] 



NA TURE 



271 



in the Museum will be available for meetings of Sections 

 in which the lime-light is indispensable. The dates and 

 hours at which this room will be available must be settled 

 by the Recorders of Sections during the meeting. 



The arrangements for excursions in the neighbourhood 

 are now complete. The list is not as long as has been 

 the case in some recent meetings, as the localities of 

 general interest which are accessible from O.xford are 

 few in number. On the Saturday afternoon parties will 

 be taken to Dorchester and Wallingford, to Abingdon, to 

 Blenheim Palace and Woodstock, and to the Roman 

 remains at Silchester, and Prof. Green will take a geo- 

 logical party through Fawler to the classical grounds of 

 Stonesfield. On the Thursday, whole day excursions are 

 arranged for Windsor and Eton, Warwick and Stratford- 

 on-Avon, Compton Wynyates, Broughton and Wroxton, 

 Reading, and the Great Western Railway Works at 

 Swindon. 



The total number of those who have up to the present 

 signified their intention of attending the meeting amounts 

 to a little over 1500. As the Sheldonian Theatre, on the 

 most liberal estimate, will not accommodate more than 

 l8oo persons, and as it is very probable that the number 

 of applicants for places will be greater than this, members 

 and associates are recommended to apply for places in 

 the Theatre for the President's address and evening 

 lectures as early as possible. The allotment of seats will 

 begin on .Monday, August 6. 



Up to the time of writing, but little information has 

 been received respecting the work of the various Sections. 

 In Section D (Biology) the President, Prof. J. Bayley 

 Balfour, will deal in his address with the aspects of 

 forestry in Great Britain, and among other papers which 

 will be read to the Section, Prof. Ray Lankester will make 

 a communication on chlorophyll in the animal kingdom. 

 Prof. A. A. W. Hubrecht will read a paper on the 

 Didermic blastocyst, and Mr. J. T. Cunningham on the 

 specific and generic characters of the PleuronectidK. 



In Section E the President, Captain W. J. L. Wharton, 

 R.X., will deal in his address with our present knowledge 

 of the physical conditions of the sea. .And among other 

 papers which will be read at the meeting are the follow- 

 ing : — Colonel Godwin .Austen, on Bhotan ; Mr. Osbert 

 H. Hovvorth, on the Sierra Madre of Mexico ; Miss Bail- 

 don, on a visit to New Guinea; Mr. D. G. Hogarth, on a 

 recent journey in Asia Minor ; Mr. W. H. Cozens Hardy, 

 on Montenegro and .Albania ; Dr. H. Schlichter, on the 

 natural wealth of British East Africa ; Mr. G. G. Chis- 

 holm, on the orthography of Place-names ; Mr. J. 

 Theodore Bent, on Hadramut ; Mr. A. Montefiore, 

 on the equipment of the Jackson- Harmsvvorth Arctic 

 Expedition ; Mr. H. N. Dickson, on the physical con- 

 dition of the Noith Sea; M. A. Delbecque, on the 

 lakes of France, and Dr. H. R. Mill, on the geography 

 of the English lakes. The proceedings of the other 

 sections will be announced as soon as they are com- 

 municated. 



THE BIOLOGICAL I.XSTITUTION IN BERGEN, 

 NORWAY. 



T AST autumn a biological institution was opened in 

 •^ Bergen. It forms part of the museum, the library 

 and collection of which the students are at liberty to 

 use. 



The building is of wood, two storeys high. Ox\ the 

 ground tloor there is one large hall surrounded on three 

 sides by aquaria, which are open to the public on pay- 

 ment of a small entrance fee. Then there is the pump- 

 room, and other rooms, one of which is used for experi- 

 ments in hatching, and in the others the collected matter 

 is examined and studied, and the dredges and other instru- 

 ments are kept. There are two hatching apparatus, 



NO. I 290, VOL. 50] 



Fig. I. — Ground floor 



each containing eight hatching-boxes. A hatching 

 apparatus for fresh water is much required, so that the 

 biological questions in connection with the salmon- 

 fishing may be worked out. 



Fig. I is the plan of the ground floor. 

 The first floor is 

 set apart for scien- 

 tific work, and con- 

 sists of two large 

 rooms, the smaller 

 of which is used 

 for chemical work, 

 and is furnished 

 with all necessary 

 apparatus. 



The larger room 

 has four windows 

 on each side; those 

 on the east are 

 separated by wood- 

 en partitions, cur- 

 tained off from the 

 rest of the room, 

 thus forming four 

 small work-rooms, 

 each of which is 

 furnished with a 

 micro sc ope and 

 writing-table and 

 other conveniences 

 for the work of one 

 person. In front of 

 the windows on the 

 west side, there are 

 tables (l, M, N, O, 

 Fig. 2). 

 Altogether ten work-tables are provided in the institute. 

 In the middle of the larger room there is a long low 

 sink (e, f, g, h, Fig. 2), which has a small channel in the 

 middle connected with a waste-pipe. On each side of 



this sink, but raised 



^ slightly above it, 



there is a shelf 

 running the whole 

 length of it, and 

 wide enough to hold 

 the small experi- 

 mental aquaria, 

 which consist of 

 glass bowls. .Above 

 the shelves are 

 pipes from the sea- 

 water reservoir,with 

 numerous taps, thus 

 supplying flowing 

 water when neces- 

 sary. 



The sea - water 



supply is conveyed 



to the pump-room 



by means of a long 



pipe from the mid- 



,-r--r die of the Padde- 



" \ fjords, at a depth of 



- ten metres ; from 



here it is pumped 



t-C up to the reservoir, 



|n.L-E which is on the top 

 storey, whence it 

 supplies the labora- 

 tories. 



The fauna is very rich ; the flora has not yet been 

 much studied. 



The biological institution is for foreign as well as 

 Norwegian students. The monthly cost for the use of 



Fig. 2. — First floor. 



