APRIL 26, 1912] 
He explained the origin and purpose of the 
society, and introduced Professor Henry S. 
Munroe who spoke on the “Significance of 
Sigma Xi.” At the banquet which followed 
at the university, representatives were present 
from the chapters at Cornell, Yale and Penn- 
sylvania. 
Mr. C. W. Lene has put his valuable collec- 
tion of “long horned” beetles at the disposal 
of the American Museum of Natural History 
for use in filling gaps in its collections. This 
means a gift of some 870 specimens covering 
nearly 300 species not hitherto acquired. Mr. 
Jobn A. Grossbeck, who has been specializing 
for some time on the Geometridx, has given 
to the museum his entire collection of these 
moths in addition to the series previously 
donated. 
We learn from Nature that the sixty-fifth 
annual general meeting of the Paleontograph- 
ical Society was held in the Geological So- 
ciety’s rooms at Burlington House on March 
22, Dr. Henry Woodward, F.R.S., president, in 
the chair. The annual report referred to the 
completion of the monograph of English Chalk 
fishes, and of the second volume of that of 
Pleistocene mammalia. It also acknowledged 
the help of the Carnegie Trust for the uni- 
versities of Scotland in providing the plates 
for another instalment of Dr. Traquair’s 
monograph of Carboniferous  paleoniscid 
fishes. A special effort had been made to com- 
plete works in progress before beginning new 
undertakings. Miss Margaret C. Crosfield, 
Mr. George Barrow, Mr. H. R. Knipe and 
Professor W. W. Watts were elected new 
members of council. Dr. Henry Woodward, 
' Dr. George J. Hinde and Dr. A. Smith Wood- 
ward were reelected president, treasurer and 
secretary respectively. 
THE natural history library of the Univer- 
sity of Illinois has been enriched by the addi- 
tion of a set of Flora Braziliensis, in forty 
folio volumes and costing $1,500. The set is 
written in Latin and is said to be the fourth 
obtained by American libraries, others being 
at Harvard, Columbia and the Shaw Botan- 
ical Gardens. 
SCIENCE 
653 
It is stated in Nature that the whole of the 
famous collection formed by the Rey. Canon 
Norman, F.R.S., consisting of North Atlantic 
and Arctic invertebrates other than insects, 
arachnids and myriopods, has now become the 
property of the Natural History Museum, the 
fourth and last instalment having been re- 
ceived recently at Cromwell Road. Of Mol- 
lusea there were specimens in 7,114 glass- 
topped boxes, of Crustacea there were 7,376 
bottles and tubes containing specimens, and 
there were, in addition, 5,544 microscopical 
slides. The Polyzoa were contained in 1,063 
glass-topped boxes, while there were 497 spirit 
specimens and 185 microscopical slides. The 
“lower invertebrata” were numerously repre- 
sented in the earlier instalments. 
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS 
Tue University of Chicago has established 
a system of retiring allowances for professors 
or their widows. <A fund of $2,500,000 taken 
from the $10,000,000 Rockefeller gift of 1910 
has been set aside for this purpose. This pen- 
sion system will grant to men who have at- 
tained the rank of assistant professor or 
higher, and who have reached the age of sixty- 
five, and have served fifteen years or more in 
the institution, 40 per cent. of their salary, 
and an additional 2 per cent. for each year’s 
service over fifteen. The plan also provides 
that at the age of seventy a man shall be re- 
tired unless the board of trustees specially 
continues his services. The widow of any 
professor entitled to the retiring allowance 
will receive one half the amount due him, 
provided she had been his wife for ten years. 
At Princeton University a fund of $5,000 
has been established by Mr. Albert Plaut, of 
New York, for the purpose of encouraging the 
study of chemistry, especially by securing dis- 
tinguished chemists to address the Chemical 
Club; and the Louis Clark Vanuxem founda- 
tion has been established by a bequest of $25,- 
000, under the will of Mr. Vanuxem, for the 
support of a series of lectures at Princeton 
annually, at least one half of which must be 
