264 
among the ethnological collections where the 
various scenes will show to the visitor Indian 
life as it once was. 
Perhaps the most unique portion of the col- 
lection is the South American sketches. 
Alexander von Humboldt, whom Catlin met in 
Europe, was so impressed with the work that 
he urged Catlin to spend some time traveling 
in South America. Accordingly, in 1852, Mr. 
Catlin set sail for Venezuela, from whose 
coast he passed into the interior and over into 
the valley of the Amazon. For six years he 
explored South America, visiting all the tribes 
on the Pacific Slope, wandering through Yuca- 
tan, and portions of Old Mexico and later 
sailing for Buenos Ayres, from whence he 
ascended the Parana River to the north and 
again traversed the entire coast line of Pata- 
gonia through the Straits of Magellan. As a 
result of this work we have ninety canvasses 
representing characteristic scenes among the 
natives of tropical and other portions of South 
America. 
BAILEY METEORITES 
Through the generosity of Mr. J. P. Mor- 
gan, Jr., the museum has acquired the col- 
lections of meteorites and minerals that were 
left by the late Mr. S. C. H. Bailey. Mr. 
Bailey was an indefatigable collector and ex- 
changer in both branches of science, and his 
series of meteorites was known as one of the 
largest in private hands in the number of falls 
and finds represented. About three hundred 
meteorites were received by the museum, many 
of which are new to its already large collec- 
tion. The most important fall represented is 
that known as Tomhannock, on account of its 
having been found on Tomhannock Oreek, 
near Troy, Rensselaer County, New York. 
Only six meteorites, four iron and two stone, 
have been discovered within the limits of the 
state, five of which have been cut up and dis- 
tributed throughout the collections of the 
world and most of the larger pieces are in 
European museums. The main mass of Tom- 
hannock, however, remained with Mr. Bailey, 
and the museum is fortunate in coming into 
possession of it. It is an aerolite, or stone 
meteorite, which was first discovered in 1863, 
SCIENCE 
[N.S. Vou. XXXV. No. 894 
but was not described until 1887, when Mr. 
Bailey gave it its present name. The entire 
original mass weighed only about three and 
one half pounds, was well rounded and covered 
with the fusion crust so characteristic of 
meteorites. Only about one tenth of the orig- 
inal mass was cut off and divided among 
museums. Hence the part that has now come 
to the American Museum is nearly nine tenths 
of the original. 
SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS 
Lorp Lister died at his home in London on 
February 11 at the age of eighty-four years. 
AT the annual meeting of the Royal Meteor- 
ological Society on January 17 the president, 
Dr. H. N. Dickson, presented to Professor 
Cleveland Abbe, of the U. S. Weather Bureau, 
Washington, the Symons gold medal for 1912, 
which had been awarded to him in considera- 
tion of his distinguished work in connection 
with instrumental, statistical and dynamical 
meteorology and forecasting. 
M. Maurice Martertinck, who last year 
received the Nobel prize for literature, pro- 
poses to raise the sum to $40,000, and to 
employ it to establish a biennial prize of $3,200 
to be awarded to the author of the most re- 
markable work—whether on literature, art or 
science—published in the French language. 
Sir Winiiam Ramsay, for twenty-five years 
professor of chemistry at London University, 
has submitted his resignation, and the senate 
has resolved: “That the senate accept Sir 
William Ramsay’s resignation with sincere 
regret, and desire to express to him their 
high appreciation of the services which he has 
rendered to the university both by his inspiring 
work as a teacher and by the great series of 
researches carried out by him at University 
College during his tenure of the chair of 
chemistry.” 
Proressor Rusyer, director of the Berlin 
Hygienic Institute, has received the large 
gold Rinecker medal of the University of 
Wiirzburg. 
We learn from Nature that the Rhodesia 
Scientific Association’s gold medal, recently 
