158 
the Anthropological Society of Vienna will 
meet together at Lindau on September 4th. 
At the International Congress of Zoology, 
which is to be held in 1901 at a place in Ger- 
many yet to be determined, the prize founded by 
the Czar of Russia will be awarded for the third 
time. The subjects proposed are: ‘Influence 
of light in the development of colors in Lepi- 
doptera: the causes determining the differences 
of color, form and structure of parts covered 
during the resting position in insects.’ The 
papers may be either printed or in manuscript. 
There are two conditions, the grounds for which 
it seems somewhat difficult to understand. 
The papers must be written in French, and 
those living in the country in which the Con- 
gress is held may not compete. 
Messrs. WARNER & SwaAseEY, of Cleveland, 
the well-known telescope makers, have pre- 
sented to Western Reserve University a tele- 
scope and dome and other astronomical appa- 
ratus. The telescope is a ten-inch instrument. 
Of its size it will probably be the best which 
Warner & Swasey have made. The telescope 
and dome will be placed on the tower of the 
Physical Laboratory, and will be erected, prob- 
ably, early in September. Frank P. Whitman, 
professor of astronomy and physics, is the suc- 
cessor of the late Professor Elias Loomis, of 
Yale University, and Professor Charles A. 
Young, now of Princeton University. 
THE National Museum, through the Bureau 
of American Ethnology, has just received from 
California the entire Hudson collection of In- 
dian basket work. This fine collection is one 
which never can be duplicated, as basket mak- 
ing is already a dying art among the Indians. 
The Hudson collection numbers about 325 
pieces, of which many would sell at $100 or 
more each in San Francisco. It was made by 
Dr. J. W. Hudson during about twenty years’ 
intimate association with the Pomo and other 
Pacific coast tribes. Many of the specimens 
are sacrificial baskets, which are made with 
great labor, and are seldom obtained by col- 
lectors, being burned on the death of their 
owners. Foreign institutions have sought to 
secure this collection, but failed. Professor 
McGee, of the Bureau, and Professor Holmes, 
SCIENCE, 
[N. S. Vou. X. No. 240. 
of the Museum, obtained an option on it last 
year. The price to the National Museum was 
almost nominal, by reason of Dr. Hudson’s 
desire to have the collection remain in this 
country. 
THE Electrical World states that but few of 
the priceless relics associated with the name of 
Volta were saved from the buildings of the 
Volta Centenary Exposition destroyed at Como, 
on July 8th. Among the articles saved was 
one of Volta’s early piles, about twenty manu- 
scripts, a few of his letters and a few books that 
had belonged to his library. An irreparable 
loss was that of his laboratory notes and scien- 
tific correspondence. In the accounts of the 
destruction of relics the first electrophorus and 
first absolute electrometer are not mentioned 
among the articles saved. Among other losses 
were a number of Ferraris’s models and some of 
his manuscripts and diplomas. Among the 
former was the first model of the rotary field. 
This is presumably the same that in 1893 was 
forwarded to the Chicago Exposition by a ves- 
sel -which was sunk in the harbor of Genoa, 
but subsequently raised and the model recov- 
ered and sent to Chicago, where it was ex- 
hibited. 
A PRELIMINARY report, says Natural Science, 
upon the results of the scientific expedition to 
the island of Socotra has been issued by Mr. 
Henry O. Forbes, Director of Museums to the 
Liverpool corporation, who, under the auspices 
of the Royal and Royal Geographical Societies 
of London, and of the British Association, and 
in conjunction with Mr. W. R. Ogilvie Grant, 
representing the British Museum, undertook 
the investigation of the natural history of the 
island. The expedition occupied a period of 
about six months, and the investigations were 
conducted amid considerable difficulties. At 
one time all the members of the party were laid 
down by a pernicious form of malaria, and they 
also suffered from frequent attacks of fever. 
The party was fortunate in discovering many 
new species of plants and animals, and a valu- 
able collection has been brought home. Ac- 
cording to the report the Socotrians are only 
poorly civilized Mahommedans, living in caves 
or rude cyclopean huts, and possessing but few 
