Febkuaky 3, 1899.] 



SCIENCE. 



191 



pal camps as a remedy for overcrowding. 

 They bad been tried at Bombay, but were not 

 successful, as they were started too late. A 

 camp in his own district was very successful. 

 The people willingly paid two rupees a month, 

 which covered the expenses and paid the in- 

 terest. The plague increased after the season 

 of the export of grain, because the rats then 

 left the bandars and spread through the town 

 in their search of food, carrying the infection 

 with them. The bandars were the foci of the 

 plague. Mr. Griesbach, Director of the Geo- 

 logical Survey of India, gave evidence as to the 

 formation of the soil in the infected areas which 

 pointed to the trap and crystalline area being 

 specially adapted to the spread of the disease, 

 but the witness explained that Bombay was 

 situated near the center of the Deccan trap 

 formation. On the alarm of the plague the 

 people naturally spread fanlike over the adjoin- 

 ing country. There was abundant evidence 

 that the tenacitj' with which epidemics clung 

 to localities was influenced by the geological 

 formation. 



The University of the State of New York an- 

 nounces that one of the most important of the 

 tWenty-two bulletins issued by the museum is 

 sent to the schools this month. This is a large 

 octavo of 156 pages, entitled a ' Guide to the 

 study of the geologic collections of the New 

 York State Museum,' by Dr. Frederick J. H. 

 Merrill, Director. In the front pocket is a 

 folded relief map showing the boundaries of the 

 geologic systems on a, scale of twenty-four miles 

 to an inch, and the entire volume is profusely il- 

 lustrated with half-tone photographs of geologic 

 features. The general plan is such that it will 

 serve as a guide to any other geologic collections 

 in New York, and will also be useful to teachers 

 in New York secondary schools who wish to 

 direct the attention of their studentsto localgeol- 

 ogy. It gives briefly a digest of the New York 

 geologic reports, with much useful introductory 

 matter, and is meant, not in any sense to re- 

 place the small text-books, but to supplement 

 them by giving information found as a rule only 

 either in the larger and more expensive books 

 which are not accessible to most teachers and 

 students, or in a multitude of scientific pa- 

 pers. 



From a Blue Book on the Straits Settlements 

 Nature learns that the Perak Museum at Tai- 

 piug is now overcrowded, and that there is con- 

 sequently much difiiculty in arranging the 

 collections in their natural sequence, while 

 there is practically no room for new specimens. 

 The Taiping collections are specially rich in the 

 ethnological and mineralogical branches, and 

 the zoological specimens have recently been 

 greatly improved. The photographic and botan- 

 ical branches were extended during the year, 

 and the museum now contains a valuable sec- 

 tion allotted to economic botany. Investiga- 

 tions were carried out, witb satisfactory results, 

 on the subject of insects attacking coffee, rice 

 and other agricultural products, and some ex- 

 periments were made in connection with tap- 

 ping i-ubber. Discussion has been going on as 

 to constituting the museum at Taiping a central 

 museum, supported by all the Federated Malay 

 States. The curator at Taiping suggests that 

 local museums, of which one has been in ex- 

 istence for several years at Selangor, and which, 

 it is hoped, will soon be established in the other 

 States, might either be affiliated to, or form 

 branches of, the Federal Museum. On the 

 other hand, the British Resident at Selango 

 urges that the existence of a local museum 

 creates and sustains in the minds of the com- 

 munity an interest in local products, their 

 sources and uses, which cannot fail to be bene- 

 ficial and deserving of encouragement, and it 

 cannot be urged that people in Selangor or the 

 Negri Sembalin will obtain any advantage from 

 a museum in Perak, however complete, which 

 few of them will probably ever see. 



In the museum of the Royal Agriculture and 

 Commercial Society of British Guiana at Deme- 

 rara, says Natural Science, various changes 

 have recently been introduced. The exhibited 

 series of birds has been revised according to the 

 British Museum catalogue, and over 200 speci- 

 mens have been remounted. Other groups 

 have been partially revised, so far as is possible 

 in the absence of modern literature. It is 

 hoped that the issue of a revised edition of the 

 British Museum Catalogue of Fishes will enable 

 the Curator to work up those animals as com- 

 pletely as the birds ; meanwhile a comprehen- 

 hensive collection of British Guiana fishes is 



