Deoehbeb 26, 1919} 



SCIENCE 



585 



THE DEATH OF LADY ALLARDYCE 



The name of Constance Allardyce, wife of 

 Sir William Allardyce, governor of the 

 Bahama Islands, will not go unrecorded in 

 the annals of science. Before appointment to 

 the Bahamas and after eight years of dip- 

 lomatic service in the Fiji Islands, Sir 

 William Allardyce was governor of the Falk- 

 land Islands and it was during their eleven 

 years on this station that Mrs. Allardyce (as 

 she then was) showed her helpful interest in 

 scientific undertakings. The writer grate- 

 fully recalls her enthusiastic aid in assem- 

 bling the fossils of the rich and remarkable 

 Devonian fauna of the islands when there was 

 no one else to help and where there was no 

 notion of what was wanted. Responding to 

 an appeal for aid made to the governor, she 

 took up the search, diligently acquainted her- 

 self with what was to be looked for, aroused 

 the curiosity and interest of the people of the 

 nearer and farther islands even to the shep- 

 herds scattered over those seventy-five bits of 

 archipelago, established collecting stations 

 here and there among them and so brought 

 together scientific material of great worth. 

 She kept alive this interest during the years 

 of her residence, extended it into other lines 

 and eventually established the Falkland Is- 

 lands Museum at Stanley, the southernmost 

 museum of the world and probably the most 

 remote scientific outpost of the British Em- 

 pire. It may be well said that the collections 

 gathered by Mrs. Allardyce are the basis of 

 pretty much all that we know to-day of the 

 ancient life of those islands and her name and 

 services have been permanently interwoven in 

 the geological story of the Falkland Islands. 



John M. Clarke 



SCIENTIFIC EVENTS 



GIFT TO THE MUSEUM OF VERTEBRATE 



ZOOLOGY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF 



CALIFORNIA 



Two hundred thousand dollars have been 

 given by Miss Annie M. Alexander to the 

 University of California for the permanent 

 support of the California Museum of Verte- 

 brate Zoology. Dr. Joseph Grinnell, associate 



professor of zoology and director of the 

 museum makes the following statement: 



The work of the California Museum of Verte- 

 brate Zoology was formally inaugurated on March 

 23, 1908, when Miss Annie M. Alexander, then of 

 Oakland, upon her own initdative entered into an 

 agreement with the university by which she 

 promised support for a period of seven years. It 

 has now been nearly twelve years since the mu- 

 seum was thus founded by Miss Alexander, and 

 she has continued her support in increasing meas- 

 ure, until now, by her endowment, the continuance 

 of the museum is insured for all time. 



The collecitions of the museum comprise at the 

 present time a total of 70,833 specimens, consist- 

 ing of 30,519 mammals, 31,347 birds, 1,804 birds' 

 nests and eggs, 7,163 reptiles and amphibians. In 

 addition there are some 17,000 privately owned 

 specimens in the various groups, on deposit here. 

 All of this material is freely available for study 

 by any responsible natural history student, here 

 and elsewhere. A system of loaning is in opera- 

 tion by which series of specimens are sent to any 

 investigator wherever he may be located. The 

 value of the museum 's possessions in the way of 

 specimens and facts can not help but increase in 

 direct ratio to the extent in which these are used. 

 The free loaning of material in vogue does away 

 with any grounds for the complaint sometimes 

 made against museums, that they are merely 

 "cold storage" instiitutions whose aims are only 

 to gather and hoard. A total of 9,713 specimens 

 has been loaned, during the past eleven years, to 

 128 different institutions or individuals. Investi- 

 gators in Washington City alone have had sent to 

 them for examination 2,642 of the museum's mam- 

 mals and birds. 



The staff of the museum at the present time 

 consists of Dr. Joseph Grinnell, director; 

 Harry S. Swarth, curator of birds; J. Eugene 

 Law, curator in osteology; Tracy I. Storer, 

 field naturalist; Joseph Dixon, economic mam- 

 malogist; Harold C. Bryant, economic or- 

 nithologist; Margaret W. Wythe, general as- 

 sistant, and Richard Hunt, assistant curator 

 of birds. 



LOSS OF GEOLOGISTS BY THE NATIONAL 

 SURVEY 



In his annual report the director of the 

 United States Geological Survey vtrites: 



