Apbil 16, 1915] 



SCIENCE 



587 



ganization of the museum and in tbe promotion of 

 educational work, returned to Chicago to address 

 this meeting on the "Progress of the Museum 

 Work during the Past Year. ' ' 



The "Celestial Sphere," which was recently in- 

 stalled in the Academy building, was open for in- 

 spection, and demonstrations were given at fre- 

 quent intervals. In this apparatus all of the 

 brighter stars which are ever visible from the Chi- 

 cago region are represented in their appropriate 

 places and with their appropriate magnitudes. By 

 electrical power the sphere is rotated, so that the 

 stars follow precisely similar courses to the ap- 

 parent motion of the fixed stars in the heavens. In 

 eleven and one half minutes the sphere completes 

 one rotation. 



The policy of the museum during the past few 

 years has been to limit its new exhibits to those il- 

 lustrating the natural history of the Chicago re- 

 gion. Thus the birds, mammals, insects, reptiles 

 and flowers of Chicago and vicinity have been 

 placed on exhibition. Every pains is taken and no 

 expense spared to make these exhibits of the local 

 material just as attractive as any that could be 

 prepared. Each exhibit is arranged to bring out 

 some feature in the life of the animal rather than 

 to display the mounted specimen as dead. Eacli 

 habitat group is based on field studies; the back- 

 ground is an enlarged and colored photograph 

 taken in the field where the specimens were col- 

 lected, and the foreground is so constructed that 

 it blends imperceptibly into the painted back- 

 ground. The animals are either at play, in search 

 of food, quarreling, earing for the young, or in 

 course of flight. These exhibits have already 

 proved to be of unusual educational value to the 

 community, and they are being used regularly by 

 the teachers in the public and private schools of 

 Chicago. 



The children's science library and free reading 

 room was opened for inspection. About three 

 hundred members and guests were present. 



On the evening of January. 15, the board of 

 trustees gave a dinner in honor of LaVerne Noyes. 

 This dinner was given as an expression of tbe 

 hearty good fellowship in the board, and of the 

 sincere appreciation of the generosity of Mr. 

 Noyes in promoting the work of the academy. Mr. 

 Henry S. Henschen presided as toastmaster. Pro- 

 fessor T. C. Chamberlin, Professor John M. Coulter, 

 Dr. Frances Dickinson and Dr. Wallace W. At- 

 wood responded to toasts. At the close of the 

 dinner the toastmaster presented a loving cup to 

 Mr. Noyes on behalf of the board of trustees. 



THE BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OP WASHINGTON 



The 537th meeting of the society was held in 

 the Assembly Hall of the Cosmos Club, Saturday, 

 March 6, 1915, called to order by ex-President 

 Stejneger at 8 p.m., with 60 persons present. 



Under the heading Brief Notes, Professor A. S. 

 Hitchcock called attention to the plans and meth- 

 ods of work in preparing a new Flora of the Dis- 

 trict of Columbia. It is hoped it will be com- 

 pleted within a year. It will contain analytical 

 keys of all the higher plants found within a 

 radius of fifteen miles of the city of Washington. 

 It will not contain descriptions. 



The first paper of the regular program was by 

 J. W. Gidley, "Notes on the Possible Origin of 

 the Bears." After the examination of much fossil 

 and living material the speaker had arrived at the 

 conclusion that the bears, constituting a small 

 homogeneous, widely distributed group are not 

 closely related t6 other living Carnivores. From a 

 consideration of the tooth structure, the bones of 

 the feet, and the basal cranial foramina, Mr. Grid- 

 ley concluded that the bears were probably derived 

 from the Ckenodon group of the Creodonts, and 

 that other living Carnivores were descended in part 

 at least from the MiaeidEe, a family of Creodonts 

 not distantly related to the Clcenodon group. 



The second communication was by the sculptor, 

 H. K. Bush-Brown, "The Evolution of the 

 Horse." The speaker was present by special in- 

 vitation of the president and introduced to the 

 society by ex-President Stejneger. Mr. Bush- 

 Brown discussed briefly the geological evolution 

 of the horse, and then spoke at considerable 

 length on the evolution of modern breeds of 

 horses, particularly of he Arab and the effects of 

 breeding it with other races, and its development 

 in this country. His paper was well illustrated 

 by lantern slides showing anatomical characteris- 

 tics of various horses, as well as their external 

 appearances. 



On Thursday, March 11, 1915, at 8:30 P.M. the 

 Biological Society of Washington held a joint 

 meeting with the Washington Academy of Sci- 

 ences in the Auditorium of the National Museum. 

 Mr. Wilfred H. Osgood, of the Field Museum of 

 Natural History and a member of the special com- 

 mission for investigating the fur-seal question for 

 the Department of Commerce during the summer 

 of 1914, delivered a lecture illustrated by stereop- 

 tieon and motion pictures on the fur seals and 

 other animals of the Pribiloff Islands. All 

 phases of the life of the seals on the islands, 

 methods of killing, skinning, salting, etc., and 



