190 
Southern Iowa,’ by T. J. and M. F. L. Fitzpat- 
rick, including a catalogue of several hundred 
species of flowering plants and ferns. 
CHARLES H. BESSEY. 
UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA. 
THE SCHOOL OF GEOGRAPHY AT OXFORD 
UNIVERSITY. 
THE recent founding of a School of Geography 
at Oxford University is an event of more 
than passing interest to the educational and 
scientific world, and deserves a word of com- 
ment on this side of the water. The Royal 
Geographical Society has long deplored the 
lack of opportunity for geographical training in 
Great Britain and has been endeavoring to get 
geography properly recognized in both univer- 
sity and school. Over fifteen years ago the 
present Secretary of the Society, Dr. J. Scott 
Keltie, made a careful study of the status of 
geography teaching in the schools of Great 
Britain, and published a complete report that 
has been of great and permanent value. For 
the last few years readers have been maintained 
in Geography at both Oxford and Cambridge, 
largely through the efforts of the Society. At 
the same time, at the Society’s rooms, training 
has been giving to prospective travellers in the 
art of surveying and in the other scientific 
lines of value to all explorers. The success of 
these various lines of work has led to the estab- 
lishment of the School at Oxford, under the 
joint auspices of the Society and the University. 
Each institution will contribute £400 annually, 
and the management of the School will be 
vested in a committee, consisting of the Chan- 
cellor ex-officio, of three nominated by the 
Council of the Royal Geogragraphical Society 
and three nominated by the Delegates of the 
Common University Fund. 
The School will start with a staff of fourmem- 
bers, consisting of the present Reader, Mr. H. 
J. Mackinder, M.A.; the Assistant to the 
Reader, Andrew J. Herbertson, Ph.D. ; a Lec- 
turer in Physical Geography, Mr. H. N. Dick- 
son, F.R.S.E., and for the year 1899-1900 a 
Lecturer in Ancient Geography, Mr. G. B. 
Grundy, M.A. 
The work of the School will include a 
course in systematic instruction primarily in- 
SCIENCE. 
(N.S. Von. X. No. 241. 
tended for graduates and other advanced stu- 
dents, with demonstrations and practical work 
in physical geography, cartography and survey- 
ing. Courses of lectures will also be given with 
special reference to the historical and scientific 
teaching in the University. 
Sir Clements Markham, in his annual address 
to the Royal Geographical Society, spoke at 
length in reference to the project and outlined 
a large field of results to come from the in- 
creased opportunities in geographical training. 
He particularly emphasized the fact that the 
School would be open to all, whether attached 
to the University or not. 
It is to be hoped that the enterprise may suc- 
ceed abundantly, and certainly it is fitting that 
the leading commercial nation of the world 
should undertake to give its young men train- 
inginan important branch of education, whether 
in preparation for business or political life. 
The importance of geography in commerce has 
long been recognized by certain leaders in Great 
Britain, but the necessary steps for bringing 
about commercial progress through increased 
geographical training have been too long de- 
ferred. This School is the only one in Great 
Britain and should fill a long standing need. 
With the opportunities at Bruxelles and at Ox- 
ford, both of which have recently been estab- 
lished, geography has received a recognition 
that ought to be a lesson to this country, es- 
pecially to the authorities of our many large 
universities that have no chairs in this science. 
R. E. D. 
SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 
DETAILS have reached us in regard to the ap- 
proaching meeting of German men of science 
and physicians, which will be held at Munich, 
from the 17th to the 23d of September. The 
Congress will be divided into no less than 
thirty-seven sections, of which seventeen are 
in the natural sciences and twenty in medicine. 
There will be two general sessions of the whole 
Congress, at each of which three lectures will 
be given. These will be ‘The Results of My 
Expedition to the North Polar Regions,’ Dr. 
Fritjof Nansen; ‘Radiography in the Treat- 
ment of Surgical Diseases,’ Professor von Berg- 
mann ; ‘The Change in the Astronomical View 
