March 25, 1898.] 



SCIENCE. 



413 



be possible to obtain suificient income, in 

 ■connection with rentals of lecture halls, etc., 

 to pay the operating expenses of the build- 

 ing, thus entirely relieving the societies 

 from any charges for their rooms, as, under 

 our charter, the property will be exempt 

 from taxation. The large auditorium is 

 calculated to seat one thousand persons, 

 and is approached by ample hallways di- 

 rectly from the street. The main feature 

 of the second floor is a large parlor or club 

 room, extending across the whole front of 

 the building, which is intended to be a place 

 of general rendezvous and social intercourse 

 for the members of the societies. On this 

 floor, however, there is also an assembly 

 room which is to be for the common use of 

 the societies for meetings that may be larger 

 than can be accommodated in their separate 

 apartments. "When not so used it is to be 

 available for public rental. On the second, 

 third and fourth floors twelve society rooms 

 and four laboratories are provided. Eight of 

 the former will be assigned to the societies 

 now included in the Alliance, and four will 

 be reserved for societies that may be ad-, 

 mitted hereafter. In the meantime they 

 may be rented. The fifth floor is lighted 

 largely from the roof and is devoted exclu- 

 sively to the library and reading rooms, 

 with double-tiered stacks for about 200,000 

 books. 



It is not necessary to go into a minute 

 description of these plans, as the drawings 

 submitted herewith exhibit plainly the de- 

 tails, which have all been worked out with 

 much care. We believe that every essential 

 requirement has been met as fully as the 

 limits of space will permit, and we are so 

 well satisfied with the plans as a whole that 

 we recommend that they be reproduced in 

 suitable form for distribution to the mem- 

 bers of the Alliance, and also that a con- 

 siderable number be sent out to the public, 

 accompanied by appropriate text, in the 

 hope that interest may be awakened in the 



enterprise we have in hand, and with faith 

 that the paper may come under the notice 

 of some generous citizen who will be in- 

 duced to at least inaugurate a movement 

 for the happy realization of what is now but 

 an earnest desire on our part. 



The general financial improvement of 

 which we have spoken not only has con- 

 tinued, but has. gathered force during the 

 past year, so that now many good judges of 

 business matters confidently look forward 

 to a period of substantial prospei-ity. If 

 their anticipations are well founded we may 

 have before us the great opportunity for 

 which we have long waited, to place before 

 the public-spirited citizens of New York, 

 with success, an appeal for the establish- 

 ment of science upon a firm and enduring 

 basis in this enlarged and aspiring metrop- 

 olis. '. We feel confident that the time has 

 come to put forth an earnest eSbrt in this 

 direction and trust that the Council will 

 confirm our purpose and reinforce our en- 

 deavor by all the means that can be properly 

 invoked for the cause. 



ZOOLOGICAL NOTES. 

 . De. Alfred Schaper has an interesting 

 paper on ' The Influence of the Central 

 Nervous System upon the Development of 

 the Embryo ' in the Journal of the Boston 

 Society of Medical Sciences for January 

 18th. The animals experimented upon 

 were the larvse of frogs, and the aim of the 

 experiment was to remove the entire cen- 

 tral nervous system, or certain parts of it, 

 by excision in very j'oung larvse where the 

 neural tube had just closed, and then to try 

 to keep the larvae alive, observing the re- 

 sults of the operation on the course of de- 

 velopment. The dorso-frontal portion of 

 the head was cut ofl' with a sharp lancet, 

 removing in successful cases the entire 

 brain, with the medulla, the anlage of the 

 eyes, the olfactory and auditoi-y organs. 

 Some of the larvse lived, and developed 



