552 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. II. No. 43. 



£40,000; Wigan, St. Helen's and Derby, 

 £20,000 each ; whilst Liverpool is having 

 plans prepared which contemplated an out- 

 lay of £80,000. 



Db. F. Dimmer, of Vienna, has been ap- 

 pointed to the chair of ophthalmology at 

 Innsbruck in succession to Dr. Czermak. 



The University of Texas has opened its 

 twelfth annual session with about 225 stu- 

 dents. 



The report of a committee consisting of 

 Lord Playfair, Lord Welby and Sir M. W. 

 Ridle}', M.P., appointed to consider the de- 

 sirability of a fixed age for the compulsory 

 retirement of professors under the crown 

 has been published as a Parliamentary 

 paper. The principal conclusions arrived 

 at by the committee are that there should 

 be fixed rules as to superannuation of presi- 

 dents and professors, and that thej^ should 

 be made by college statutes and not by an 

 Order in Council. When a professor reaches 

 65 years of age the president of the college 

 should be bound to report to the govern- 

 ment the condition and efficiency of the 

 teaching. If these are and continue to be 

 satisfactory, the professor need not be super- 

 annuated till 70, but at this age his retire- 

 ment should be absolute. In regard to 

 presidents, the committee is of the opinion 

 that the age of 70 should be the period of 

 retirement, but, should the visitors of the 

 college formally report that the college 

 would suffer by the loss of the experience 

 which the president has acquired, the Treas- 

 ury, and not the Irish office, should have 

 power to continue him as president for a 

 certain number of years not exceeding five, 

 so that at the age of 75 the retirement of 

 a president should be absolute. 



COBBESPOyDENCE. 



A FEW more words IN REGARD TO THE NEW 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL BUREAU. 



In Science for August 23d I took the lib- 

 erty of explaining, in ;i brief way. some of the 



principal features of the new Bibliographical 

 Bureau for Zoologj'. I was not, however, able 

 to compare the system adopted with the numer- 

 ous suggestions which had been made in this 

 journal by correspondents interested in this 

 imjaortant question. I shall now attempt to do 

 so as briefly as possible. 



In the first place, let me state that the work 

 will agree closely with the propositions formu- 

 lated by the Harvard Faculty. In elaborating 

 this plan, I have been obliged to travel to al- 

 most every country of Eurojie, and to consult 

 several hundred zoologists and bibliographers 

 from all parts of the world. It seems, there- 

 fore, a very significant fact that these two in- 

 dependent plans should show such striking 

 similarity. This circumstance seems to show 

 most conclusively that there is a real want 

 felt for just such an organization of the ser- 

 vice. 



The features in which we differ from the 

 plan of Professor Bowditch (not counting those 

 where we simply go farther) are the two fol- 

 lowing : (1) The greater centralization of the 

 work. We did not want to depend upon the 

 cooperation of the authors. Our arrangement 

 does not exclude the other. If the authors can 

 be induced to aid us it would be a great sav- 

 ing, but we must be able to get along without 

 their direct aid. (2) The notes appended to the 

 titles by the Bureau are not intended to be 

 resumes, but are to be concise statements of the 

 topics treated. To make a resume requires too 

 special knowledge on the part of the bibliog- 

 rapher for it to seem practicable. This is the 

 province of the Zoological Record and of the 

 ' Jahresbericht, ' and it is best not to duplicate 

 their work. 



In Professor Hale's letter I was much inter- 

 ested in his idea of a ' Bureau of Scientific Cor- 

 respondence. ' This is almost exactly what we 

 shall offer. I differ from your correspondent 

 merelj' in the minor point of not fancying a 

 restriction in the matter of language to English 

 and French. 



The bibliographical part of Professor Todd's 

 scheme corresponds too obviously with our own 

 to need special comment. The same is true in 

 regard to Dr. McGee. I should, however, like to 

 call attention to his remarks on non-commercial 



