980 
Cope the proceeds of the sale form an endow- 
ment fund for the Philadelphia Academy of 
Natural Sciences. f 
ACCORDING to a notice in the New York Com- 
mercial Advertiser of December 16th, the Pea- 
body Museum at New Haven has been enriched 
by a valuable accession to the anthropological 
collections. The addition consists of Mexican 
and Guatemalan antiquities, about 350 pieces 
in all, which were brought from but two local- 
ities—Sempoala, state of Vera Cruz, and Ta- 
cana, Guatemala. 
THE Hon. Walter Rothschild, M.P., treas- 
urer to the Middlesex Hospital, has sent a do- 
nation of £100 towards the maintenance of the 
new research laboratories for the investigation 
of the cause of cancer in connection with the 
new wing for female cancer patients of that in- 
stitution. 
Mr. ANDREW CARNEGIE has offered $50,000 
for a public library in Oil City, Pa., on the con- 
ditions that a site be donated, and that the city 
appropriate $3,000 annually for the library’s 
support. 
Ir is stated in Natural Science that the Morti- 
mer Museum of Antiquities at Driffield, York- 
shire, contains a very good local collection. Its 
owner has offered it to the East Riding County 
Council for half its value, the value to be de- 
cided by two referees, one to be appointed by 
the Council and the other by Mr. Mortimer. 
A COMMUNICATION was presented to the Sen- 
ate on December 20th, from the Regents of the 
Smithsonian Institution suggesting the appoint- 
ment of Mr. Richard Olney to fill the vacancy 
on the Board caused by the death of William 
Preston Johnson. Senator Hoar said he thought 
that it was the first time that the Regents had 
made such a suggestion. No action was taken 
by the Senate. 
INVITATIONS for the next agricultural confer- 
ence for the West Indies have been issued by 
the British Department of Agriculture. It is 
proposed to hold the conference at Barbadoes, 
and the dates fixed are Saturday the 6th, and 
Monday, the 8th of January next. The presi- 
dent, Dr. D. Morris will deliver the opening ad- 
dress. A new feature will be the presence of 
representatives of the leading agricultural so- 
SCIENCE, 
[N. S. Vou. X. No. 261. 
cieties in the West Indies. The list of subjects 
to be dealt with covers, practically, every 
branch of West Indian agriculture. 
AT a meeting of the Fellows of the Royal 
Botanic Society, London, on December 8th, 
the chairman stated that it was very satisfac- 
tory to know that during the year 203 new 
Fellows had been elected, that number being 
higher than in any previous year since the 
foundation of the society. The largest number 
in other years was in 1850, when 186 Fellows 
were elected. 
THE British Institution of Electrical Engi- 
neering held its eleventh annual dinner on 
December 6th. The President, Professor 
Sylvanus P. Thompson occupied the chair, and 
speeches were made by Mr. R. E. Crompton, 
General Sir R. Harrison, Sir W. C. Austen- 
Roberts, and Lord Kelvin. 
Nature states that in connection with the 
British Institution of Electrical Engineers, a 
number of local centers are being established 
where papers will be read and discussed at the 
same time, or shortly after, their reading in 
London. In Cape Town these informal meet- 
ings have been held for some time past, and 
advance copies of the Institution’s papers have 
been read at them. A meeting for the forma- 
tion of a northeastern center was held recently 
at the Durham College of Science, and the Coun- 
cil have received a petition for the establish- 
ment of a similar organization in Dublin. 
THE proprietors of the Marconi system of 
wireless telegraphy have offered the use of 
twenty sets of instruments to the Government 
on payment of $10,000 in the first instance and 
$10,000 a year for their use. Secretary Long 
has under consideration the advisability of ask- 
ing Congress to make a special appropriation 
for the purpose. 
AN institution on the lines of the Pasteur 
Institute, bearing the name Alfonso XIII., has 
been established at Madrid. 
A DEPUTATION appeared before the Hdin- 
burgh Town Council on November 21st to urge 
the establishment of a zoological garden in that 
city. 
