864 
Washington, Major General Brooke, command- 
ing the division of Cuba, has issued the follow- 
ing circular to the officers serving on that 
Island : 
‘* Officers of the army serving in Cuba are requested 
to procure wherever practicable any object of histor- 
ical, ethnological or artistic interest that it may be 
possible for them to obtain in a proper manner for 
shipment by government transports, to be deposited 
among the government collections in the Smithsonian 
Institution at Washington.’ 
Tue Indian correspondent of the British Med- 
ical Journal reports that the Muktesar Bacterio- 
logical Laboratory, including the residence of 
the Imperial Bacteriologist, which formed part 
of it, has been completely gutted by fire. Owing 
to the large amount of pinewood which had 
been used in the construction of the building, 
including an enclosed wooden veranda on 
either side, the flames, which broke out at 
night, aided by a strong wind, spread with such 
rapidity that much of the laboratory apparatus, 
and nearly all private property, was lost. Itis 
stated, however, that the whole of the records 
of the rinderpest experiments which have been 
carried out throughout the present year, to- 
gether with efficient apparatus to allow of their 
being continued, and all the Government 
library, have been saved. Surgeon-General 
Harvey will visit Muktesar early in November, 
when it is expected that arrangements will be 
made for the reconstruction of the building, as 
the walls are reported to be sound. 
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 
THE University of Pennsylvania has received 
a gift of $250,000 for the construction and 
equipment of a laboratory of physics, which 
will be erected at Thirty-fourth and Locust 
streets. The name of the donor is withheld 
for the present. 
Ir was announced in this JouRNAL last week 
that funds had been provided for a chair of 
geology in McGill University in memory of the 
late Sir William Dawson, the income to be 
given to Lady Dawson during her life. At the 
last meeting of the Governors of the Univer- 
sity, it was announced that the donor is Sir Wil- 
liam MacDonald, to whom the University is 
already indebted for such great gifts. The 
SCIENCE. 
[N.S. Von. X. No. 258. 
amount of the endowment is $62,000 and the 
chair is to be known as the Dawson chair of 
geology. There is already a Logan chair of 
geology in the University, filled by Professor 
Frank D. Adams, but a second will be filled 
when the income becomes available. 
WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY has received a gift 
of $38,000 from Miss Elizabeth A. Mead, sub- 
ject to an annuity during her lifetime. St. 
Lawrence University has received $34,000 from 
various sources. North Western University has 
received $15,000 from Dr. R. D. Sheppard to- 
ward the cost of a gymnasium. 
Hon. WM. C. Topp, of Atkinson, N. H., the 
founder of the newspaper reading room of the 
Boston public library, has just made the gift of 
$500 to the library of Washington and Lee Uni- 
versity, to be used chiefly for books on chem- 
istry. 
Ir is probable that a college for teachers will 
be established at Cornell University with the 
aid of funds from New York State. By the in- 
crease in the number of the assembly districts 
in the State, Cornell University must educate 
eighty-eight additional students without charge, 
and it is reported that President Schurman and 
the Superintendent of Public Instruction have 
asked for support for the college for teachers 
in return for these scholarships. The College 
will be on the same basis as the State Veteri- 
nary College and the State College of Forestry, 
in which the cost of professional training is pro- 
vided by the State, and the other instruction by 
the University. 
A UNIVERSITY Council has been established at 
Yale University, the function of which is speci- 
ally to consider questions which concern more 
than oneschoolor department. The first mem- 
bers are Dean Wright and Professors Dana, 
Perrin and Sumner of the academic department ; 
Dean Chittenden and Professors Lounsbury and 
Pirsson of the Scientific School ; Dean Phillips 
of the Graduate School; Dean Wayland and 
Professor S. E. Baldwin of the Law School ; 
Dean Smith and Professor Carmalt of the Medi- 
cal School ; Dean Fisher and Professor Brastow 
of the Divinity School; Dean Weir of the Art 
School, and either Professor Parker or Professor 
Sanford of the musical department. 
