892 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. II. No. 52. 



features of the French system is that of devo- 

 ting certain places to one stage of the work, 

 and other places to other stages. From Ar- 

 cachon, for example, after being cultivated up 

 to the age of about two years, the oysters 

 are brought up for further advancement else- 

 where and for fattening for the market. Prof. 

 Herdman gave a warning in regard to the fat 

 green oysters, the green in some cases being 

 simply a disease, in which the true blue had got 

 mixed up with the yellow. He remarked that 

 the oyster cultivators, in drawing off the water 

 periodically, trained the oj'ster to keep its 

 mouth shut when out of the water, which is 

 a point of some importance when it comes to be 

 laid out in the market. The Italian method of 

 culture differed from the French, inasmuch as 

 the former is conducted on the vertical prin- 

 ciples, by suspension of the oyster with ropes or 

 twigs in deeper water, whilst the French 

 method is the horizontal, in shallow beds from 

 a few inches to a couple of feet deep. The 

 oyster is said to live as long as twenty years, 

 and those fittest for the market are of the age 

 of about five years. Prof Herdman stated that 

 the American oyster is more prolific than the 

 English oyster, producing as many as 60,000,000 

 ova at a time. The typhoid germ does not 

 flourish in sea water at an ordinary temperature, 

 but the question of typhoid fever, as propagated 

 by oysters, is under Government investigation 

 and is not yet settled. 



VNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 



It is reported that $300,000 of the $1,000,000 

 given by Miss Culver, to the University of 

 Chicago, will be used for the erection of a 

 laboratory of biology on the grounds of the 

 University. An Inland biological station will 

 probably be erected near the Yerkes Observa- 

 tory on Lake Geneva, and the Marine Biological 

 Laboratory at Woods Holl will be strengthened. 

 About one-half of the entire sum is to be re- 

 served for endowment. The buildings and en- 

 dowments are, whenever it is suitable, to be 

 named after Mr. Hull, from whom Miss Culver 

 inherited the money. 



Mks. Maktha W. Brown, of Manchester, N. 

 Y., bequeaths to Dartmouth College a sum of 



money to be left to accumulate until it reaches 

 8-10,000, when it is to be used to endow the 

 chair of Physiology to be called ' The Wil- 

 liam Brown Professorship of Human Physi- 

 ology.' 



De. Chaeles Palache has been appointed 

 assistant in mineralogy at Harvard University. 

 Dr. Palache received the degree of B.S. from 

 the UniA'ersity of California in 1891, was fellow 

 in mineralogy there in 1892-93 and honorary 

 fellow in 1893-91, received the degree of Ph. D. 

 in 1894, and has spent the last year in advanced 

 work at Gottingen. 



We have received from the Missouri Botanical 

 Garden an announcement concerning garden 

 pupils and garden scholarships. Three scholar- 

 ships will be awarded by the director prior to 

 the first of April next, and applications should 

 be made not later than March 1st. The value of 

 the scholarships is for the first year $200, for the 

 second S250, and for the third and fourth years 

 $300, together with free lodgings. 



Theee are said to be 2,610 medical students 

 attending the several schools at Philadelphia; 

 of these 900 are at the University of Pennsyl- 

 vania and 725 at the Jefferson Medical College. 



The Herbarium of the Universitj^ of Wiscon- 

 sin is making special efforts to collect all plants 

 that grow in the State. Mr. L. S. Cheney has 

 been for several years in charge of the field of 

 and herbarium work of the Botanical Survey of 

 Wisconsin, and has alreadyexamined the plants of 

 the Wisconsin River Vallej' from the headwaters 

 to the Dells. Prof. Barnes believes that the 

 function of State collections should be to repre- 

 sent the local fauna and flora, leaving the ac- 

 cumulation and maintenance of great collections 

 to institutions which are established or endowed 

 for this purpose, where proper provision can be 

 made for their use. 



Lady Heeschel has placed copies of observa- 

 tions made at the Cape of Good Hope by the 

 late Sir J. F. W. Herschel, Barl., at the dis- 

 posal of the trustees of the Mathematical 

 Scholar.ships of the University of Oxford, with 

 a request that one copy should be given annu- 

 ally to that candidate for the Senior Scholar- 

 ship who distinguishes himself most in the part 

 of the examination which relates to astronomy. 



