October 25, 1895.] 



SCIENCE. 



547 



the pole in Mai-ch, returning twice to his 

 base for supplies to equip the advanced 

 station, where he will spend the coming 

 winter ; but the ' Windward ' only broke 

 out of the ice on September 7th, and her 

 crew suifered badly from scurvy. 



Major Leonard Darwin read a report 

 on the Sixth International Congress and 

 sketched the work done at that gathering. 



In some respects the most valuable papers 

 submitted were those dealing from the 

 geographical standpoint with various spe- 

 cial sciences. Astronomical geography was 

 represented by Mr. W. B. Blaikie's remark- 

 ably ingenious Cosmosphere, a union of the 

 terrestrial and celestial globes on which all 

 problems in practical geography could not 

 only be worked out, but demonstrated di- 

 rectly to the eye. 



Oceanography had as its exponent the 

 first British authoritj^, and probably the 

 first authority in the world, on the whole 

 subject, Dr. John Murray, who discoursed 

 on the general circulation of the oceans. 

 Mr. H. N. Dickson demonstrated, by a 

 series of exceptionally fine lantern slides, 

 the results of his recent discussion of obser- 

 vations made on the conditions of the North 

 Atlantic, bringing out the close relation be- 

 tween the axis of relatively high water 

 temperature in the ocean and the position 

 of the North Atlantic anti- cyclone, by which 

 the climate of Europe is largely conditioned. 



In climatology M. Ravenstein presented 

 the report of a Committee of the Section on 

 the investigation of the climate of tropical 

 Africa by means of instruments supplied 

 by the Association and employed by gov- 

 ernment officials, missionaries and traders 

 in various parts of the continent. Biological 

 geography was well represented by Mr. A. 

 Trevor-Battye, who, in the course of a paper 

 on the ' Struggle for Existence under Arctic 

 Conditions,' insisted on the probabilitj^ of 

 the theory of instinctive return to an an- 

 cestral home being the compelling power in 



the northern migration of birds for the 

 breeding season. 



And in history Mr. Myers succeeded in 

 making clear the geographical conceptions 

 of Herodotus by reconstructing, from the 

 writings of the ' Father of History,' maps 

 such as might have been used in the first 

 discussion of these views. 



Hugh Robert Mill, . 



London. Recorder of Section E. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 

 THE SMITHSONIAN EXHIBIT AT ATLANTA. 



The Government building at the Cotton 

 States Exposition contains collections of 

 great interest exhibited by the Smithsonian 

 Institution and the National Museum. Ac- 

 cording to the pamphlet published to ac- 

 company the exhibit an attempt has been 

 made: 



1. To give as good an idea as possible o£ the char- 

 acter of the treasures which are preserved in tlie Mu- 

 seum, by presenting an epitome of its contents, with 

 contributions from every department. 



2. To illustrate the methods by which science con- 

 trols, classifies and studies great accumulations of 

 material objects, and uses these as a means for the 

 discovery of truth. 



3. To exhibit the manner in which collections are 

 arranged, labeled and displayed in a great museum, 



4. To afford as much instruction and pleasure as 

 possible to those who may visit the Atlanta Exposi- 

 tion, to impress them with the value of museums as 

 agencies for public enlightenment, and thus to en- 

 courage the formation of public museums in the cities 

 of the South. 



These objects seem to be admirably ac- 

 complished by the collections which are ex- ^ 

 hibited under the following departments : 

 MammaU, including, in addition to 43 speci- 

 mens illustrating range and classification, 

 12 of the most characteristic types of the 

 human species. Birds, represented in their 

 natural surroundings. Reptiles, showing 

 the poisonous snakes of the United States. 

 Fishes, including 73 of the most character- 

 istic species. Comparative Anatomy, arranged 

 by Mr. F. A. Lucas, is intended to illustrate 



