APRIL 29, 1897 | 
NATURE 
613 
various necessary directions. The museums and labora- 
tories have been practically created within the present 
generation, but already many of them require consider- 
able extension and better equipment. Important branches 
of study are rightly claiming recognition, but their 
demands cannot be met without heavy capital outlay. 
New sites have been secured, but the money to build on 
them is not forthcoming. The University library must 
be extended ; the school of law is without a building ; 
the lecture-rooms for the literary and philosophical sub- 
jects are wholly inadequate ; there are neither central 
offices for University business, nor suitable rooms for 
University examinations; lastly, the laboratories for 
botany, zoology, and pathology must be rebuilt ; the 
departments of physiology, physics, and engineering 
need speedy enlargement, and the school of medicine 
(including pharmacology) is practically beyond repair, 
and must be reconstructed on another site. 
It is pointed out that while the total divisible income 
of the Colleges has fallen by 34 per cent. in the last 
fifteen years, the number of students has increased to 
3000. Much personal devotion and sacrifice on the part 
of the teachers, much self-denial on the part of the 
‘Colleges which have not reduced their scholarships, and 
other encouragements for the poorer students, and much 
enthusiasm for the progress of science and learning on 
the part of all, must have gone to produce a result so 
creditable to the University. It appears to us that a fair 
case has been made out for its substantial re-endowment 
in respect of many of its departments ; and, though no 
appeal for subscriptions is made, the facts related in the 
Chancellors statement may well be pondered by those 
who are in a position to display a wise liberality in the 
cause of education, learning, and research. 
NOTES 
Av a meeting held on April 13, the Academy of Natural 
‘Sciences of Philadelphia conferred the Hayden Memorial Award 
for 1897, consisting of a bronze medal and the interest of the 
special endowment fund, on Prof. A. Karpinski, the Chief of 
the Geological Survey of Russia, in recognition of the value of 
his contributions to geological and paleontological science. 
THE Budget Commission of the French Government has 
decided that the sum of four thousand pounds be voted for the 
Pasteur Institute at Rhia-Trang, to encourage Dr. Yersin’s 
researches on the plague serum. The Chamber of Deputies is 
asked to adopt this decision. 
e 
THE British Medical Journal says there is a Bill before the 
New York State Legislature which provides for the establish- 
ment of a laboratory for the preparation of evidence for use in 
future trials for murder conducted by the State. In a recent 
‘case 1450/7. was paid to medical witnesses for giving expert 
evidence. The object of the new Bill is to save this expense. 
Sir Epwarp Newton, K.C.M.G., died at Lowestoft on April 
25, in the sixty-fifth year of his age. The youngest son of the 
late Wm. Newton, of Elveden, in Suffolk, he proceeded to 
Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he took the usual degrees. 
Appointed, in 1859, Assistant Colonial Secretary of Mauritius, 
he successively became Auditor General and Colonial Secretary 
of that island, relinquishing the last post in 1877, on being ap- 
pointed Colonial Secretary and Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica, 
whence he retired in 1883, through ill-health. He wasa member 
cof the mission sent by the Government of Mauritius to congratu- 
late the late King of Madagascar on his accession to the throne ; 
and, being an ardent ornithologist, availed himself of the occasion 
by materially increasing (as he did during a subsequent visit 
made with that express purpose) the knowledge of the very 
NO. 1435, VOL. 55 | 
peculiar fauna of that country, which he was almost the first 
English naturalist to investigate on the spot. In like manner 
he largely increased our knowledge of the zoology of the 
Mascarene Islands generally, and it is mainly due to his exertions 
that nearly complete skeletons of the marvellous ‘‘ Solitaire’ of 
Rodriguez were recovered from the caves of that island, as 
described in the Phzlosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. 
Sir Edward was one of the founders of the British Ornitho- 
logists’ Union, a Fellow of the Linnean Society, and a Corre- 
sponding Member of the Zoological Society of London. 
WE regret to see the announcements of the death of Dr. E. S. 
Bastin, professor of botany and materia medica at the Phila- 
delphia College of Pharmacy, and of Mr. Louis P. Casella, the 
well-known scientific instrument maker. 
THE southern portion of Bronx Park, which the Commis- 
sioners of the Sinking Fund of the City of New York have just 
allotted for the use of the New York Zoological Society, em- 
braces an area of about 260 acres. The city authorities will 
annually provide the funds for the maintenance and care of the 
buildings, animals and collections in the Zoological Garden 
which will be established in the Park; but the grant for the 
first year is not to exceed sixty thousand dollars. The erection 
and original equipment of the buildings, and the animals to stock 
them, have to be paid for by the Zuological Society, which has 
to raise one hundred thousand dollars by subscription before 
this time next year, and the further sum of one hundred and 
fifty thousand dollars within three years of the commencement 
of the work of converting Bronx Park into a Zoological Garden. 
Strong efforts are therefore being made to secure to the Society 
the sympathy and support of a large number of members. An 
attractive report on the plans and purposes of the Society has 
been printed and circulated, and in it Mr. William T. Horn- 
aday, the Director of the proposed Garden, describes the zoo- 
logical gardens of Europe, and dwells upon the advantages 
offered by Bronx Park. He holds that none of the Gardens he 
visited ‘‘ occupies ground whichcan for one moment becompared, 
either in physical character or in extent, with the matchless site 
that has been chosen by this Society for the Zoological Park of 
America.” One of the conditions of the grant of South Bronx 
Park to the Society is that the Zoological Garden and its collec- 
tions shall be open free to the public for not less than seven 
hours a day, or at least five days a week. 
Tue Belgian Royal Academy announces prizes, mostly of the 
value of 600 francs, to be awarded in 1898 for essays on certain 
questions connected with the following subjects: In mathematical 
and physical science—on the critical phenomena, on theories of 
the constitution of solutions, on the correspondences ( Verwandt- 
schaften) between two spaces, and on the influence of the radical 
NO, in certain compounds. In biological science—on the macro- 
and micro-chemistry of digestion in carnivorous plants, on the 
physiology of some invertebrate animal, and on the organisa- 
tion and ‘development of the Platoda. A further prize of 
1000 francs is offered, in memory of Jean-Servais Stas, for the 
best determination of the atomic weight of some element for 
which this constant is at present uncertain. 
In the last number of its Proceedings, the London Mathe- 
matical Society publishes the outlines of seven lectures on the 
Partitions of Numbers, which were delivered by the late Prof. 
Sylvester at King’s College, London, during the year 1859. 
The outline of each lecture was printed shortly before it 
delivery, and copies handed to those in attendance. The 
Professor’s attention was shortly afterwards diverted to 
another branch of mathematics, with the result that his re- 
searches on compound partitions have hitherto remained un- 
published ; but shortly before his death, Prof, Sylvester yielded 
