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SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VII. No. 164. 



in height, and are so arranged that they can all 

 be seen at a glance. Mr. Sutton purposes giv- 

 ing to the University a group of nocturnal ani- 

 mals mounted in a similar manner. 



A SERIES of specimens of rare coal taken 

 from mines in Missouri, Arkansas and Texas, 

 and a collection of petroleum, petroliferous 

 rocks and petroleum shales from India have 

 been presented to the museum of economic 

 geology of New York University. 



General Lew Wallace has announced that 

 at his death the city of Crawfordsville, Ind., 

 will come into possession of his study, which 

 has just been completed at a cost of $40,000. 

 The building is to be used as a public library. 

 A collection of rare books will be included in 

 the gift. 



We take the following items from Natural 

 Science : The association franjaise de botanique 

 has acquired as its organ Le monde des plantes, 

 for many years edited by Mr. Leveille, of Mans 

 (56 Rue de Flore). The Association is intended 

 to take the place of the Soci6te frangaise de 

 botanique, which ceased to exist in 1895. It 

 is intended to form a central herbarium and 

 library, free to members, and to undertake the 

 exchange and determination of specimens. 

 The State Museum, Vienna, received the fol- 

 lowing collections during 1896 : Eppelsheim 

 collection of Coleoptera, including more than 

 2,000 species or 26,000 specimens of Staphy- 

 linidse ; the Gustav Mayr collection of Hemip- 

 tera, including 1,350 species or 5,500 speci- 

 mens ; the Bergenstamm collection of Diptera, 

 including 3,000 species or 45,000 specimens ; 

 the Steindachner collection of fish, chiefly from 

 the Red Sea, 3,400 specimens representing 702 

 species. The collection of geological photo- 

 graphs in this Museum then numbered 1,892, 

 while the ethnographic photographs were 5,477. 

 The Colonial Museum at Marseilles, opened in 

 1893, is remarkable for its valuable collection 

 of tropical vegetable products. These are 

 studied and analyzed under the direction of Mr. 

 Heckel in the Museum laboratory. Among 

 . recent acquisitions may be mentioned Dr. Buis- 

 son's collection of the mollusca of Tahiti, 

 botanical collections from New Caledonia, pre- 

 sented by Messrs. Heckel and Jeanneney and 



Col. Pelletier, and from the Antiles by R. P. 

 Diiss. 



The January number of the American Natural- 

 ist has just been issued by Ginn & Company, be- 

 ing the first number to be issued under their im- 

 print. The appearance of the journal is greatly 

 improved, a heavy glazed paper being used, 

 with wide margins and new type. The issue 

 of the first number of the thirty-second volume, 

 the first entire volume under the new manage- 

 ment, is made the occasion of an editorial on 

 the aim of the American Naturalist, the province 

 of the journal being defined as follows : " May 

 it not be possible to regard the earth and its 

 inhabitants as a unit ? Then the problem would 

 be to describe the various parts of this unit and 

 to explain their relations to one another. While 

 the solution of this problem is too vast an un- 

 dertaking for any one man or any generation 

 of men, may it not be legitimate to adopt it as 

 the final purpose of a journal which is intended 

 to represent the great body of naturalists in 

 this country? It seems to us that there is a 

 legitimate ideal of attainment and one which, 

 if kept steadily in view by editors and contrib- 

 utors, will afford that unity of purpose which 

 is essential to success." 



We have received the first two numbers of 

 the Journal of Applied Microscopy, edited by Mr. 

 L. B. Elliott, and issued from the publication 

 department of the Bausch & Lomb Optical 

 Company, Rochester, N. Y. The first numbers 

 contain contributions from several leading 

 American zoologists, and the cooperation of 

 about a hundred men of science, who use the 

 microscope as an instrument, has been prom- 

 ised. In the introductory editorial the scope 

 of the journal is defined as follows: "It 

 will be a progressive record of new apparatus 

 of every kind bearing on the operations leading 

 up to and including the use of the microscope, 

 improvements in apparatus and new applica- 

 tions of apparatus already existing, methods of 

 working, new and useful formulae, discussion of 

 matters relating to the above subjects, digests 

 of similar matter appearing in foreign journals, 

 and news and notes about institutions and men 

 here and abroad." 



The Duquesne Steel Works of the Carnegie 



