September 13, 1895.] 



SCIENCE. 



339 



All communications are to be addressed to 

 the Honorary Secretaries, T. W. E. David 

 and J. H. Maiden. The Society's House, 5 

 Elizabeth Street, Sydney. 



GENERAL. 



The Kansas University Geological Expe- 

 dition has returned from the field with 

 large and valuable collections of Mesozoic 

 and Tertiaiy vertebrate fossils, aggregating 

 nearly five tons in weight. Among the ma- 

 terial are two complete skeletons of Bos 

 antiquus, which will be mounted in the 

 museum; an excellent skull of Monodonius 

 ( Triceratops) and a specimen of Hesperornis, 

 which is unequalled in any collection for per- 

 fection and completeness, and is of especial 

 interest from the fact that the chalk slab upon 

 which it is lying shows clear impressions of 

 the dermal covering. 



A Federal Decree published in the ' Dia- 

 rio Oficial,' on the 25th June, established 

 the metric system of weights and measures 

 obligatory in the United States of Mexico, 

 on and after September 16, 1896. The me- 

 tric system has been in use in the govern- 

 ment departments of Mexico for some time 

 past ; the decree makes it the sole legal sys- 

 tem throughout the Republic and will do 

 away with the heterogeneous old Spanish 

 measures hitherto tolerated in ordinary 

 business transactions. 



After one of the sessions of the Section 

 of Mechanical Science and Engineering of 

 the A. A. A. S. the members were invited 

 to inspect the Duryea motor wagon, and 

 saw the carriage in successful operation. 

 Some of the members rode in it and were 

 delighted with the ease with which the car- 

 riage could be managed and the way in 

 which it performed its work. The Messrs. 

 Duryea began their study of this subject in 

 1886, began construction in 1891, and the 

 present carriage was completed last March. 

 Further improvements have been made 

 which will be embodied in the next one 



constructed. The tires are pneumatic and 

 the general appearance of the carriage is 

 very nearly like the ordinary piano-box 

 type. 



On the occasion of the visit of members 

 of the A. A. A. S. to Amherst, Professor 

 Emerson exhibited the important paleonto- 

 logical, geological and mineralogical collec- 

 tions belonging to the College. Professor 

 Emerson's laboratory and lecture-room was, 

 from a pedagogical point of view, of much in- 

 terest. One of the appliances was a black- 

 board constructed on what seems to be a 

 new principle. The face was of ground 

 glass in a hinged frame with a black sur- 

 face back of the glass. This makes a good 

 blackboard in itself, but its special advan- 

 tage is that diagrams can be inserted back 

 of the glass, and the drawing can be con- 

 tinued in the presence of the students. 



Nature states that a civil list pension of 

 £200 has been granted to Mrs. Huxley. 



The Educational Revieiv for September con- 

 tains three of the principal evening ad- 

 dresses given before the Denver meeting of 

 the National Educational Association : — the 

 Presidential address, by Prof. N. M. Butler, 

 on ' What Knowledge is of Most Worth,' 

 an address by Prof. Joseph Le Conte, on 

 ' Evolution and Education,' and an address 

 by Prof. W. H. Payne, on ' Education Ac- 

 cording to Nature.' The Review also con- 

 tains the reports of two committees pre- 

 sented to the National Council of Educa- 

 tion : — one on the ' Laws of Mental Con- 

 gruence and Energy applied to some Peda- 

 gogical Problems ' and one on ' The Rural 

 School Problem.' 



The daily papers contain a telegram from 

 St. John stating that news of the Peary Re- 

 lief Expedition has been received from the 

 American schooner John E. Mackenzie, re- 

 turning from the Greenland halibut fishery. 

 The Mackenzie met the Kite with the 

 expedition at Holsteinburg on July 15. At 



