400 
ciety of New York on February 28th, his 
subject being ‘The Naturalist on the Coast of 
Alaska.’ 
Mr. N. C. MAcNAMARA delivered the Hun- 
terian Oration before the Royal College of Sur- 
geons of England on February 14th, taking as 
his subject the form of the human skull in 
relation to the origin of pre-historic man in 
western Europe. 
Ir is reported that there is a serious outbreak 
of the bubonic plague in the Khirgiz steppes 
of western Siberia. Many thousands are said 
to have already died. Thespread of the plague 
at Cape Town gives apprehension lest the army 
may be affected, and rumors to this effect are 
already current. 
THE last biennial report of the Illinois State 
Laboratory of Natural History indicates that 
some valuable inyestigations have been made in 
regard to the abundance, distribution and mi- 
gration of Illinois fishes, their times and places 
of breeding, their feeding habits and their food 
preferences. Five stations have been estab- 
lished in the Illinois river for investigation, one 
in the Spoon river and three in the bottom- 
land lakes connected with the larger streams. 
Highty species of fish were found near Havana, 
on the Illinois river, the families most charac- 
teristic of the region being catfish, suckers and 
sunfish. There are also a few very abundant 
species of other families, as the gar, dog-fish, 
gizzard-chad, yellow bass, sheepshead and carp. 
A considerable number of collections have been 
made by high school principals and science 
teachers and sent to the laboratory in aid of this 
survey. The laboratory collections of fishes for 
the last thirty years have been examined and 
catalogued and rearranged. The collections 
assorted to the present time are contained in 
63 large copper tanks and in 2,327 jars and 
bottles. A beginning was made Jast summer in 
the preparation of colored plates for the report 
on the fishes of the State. Sixteen plates were 
finished during the summer, and the color 
drawings are accurate in detail, true to life in 
color ,form and attitude. It is the purpose of 
Dean 8. A. Forbes to have illustrated by such 
plates every species of fish found, and the re- 
sult will be a more finished series of plates of 
SCIENCE. 
[N. S. Vou. XIII. No. 323. 
American fresh-water fishes than has ever yet 
been published. 
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 
THE Chicago Institute of Pedagogy, endowed 
by Mrs. Emmons Blaine with, it is said, nearly 
$2,000,000, has been united with the University 
of Chicago. 
THRouGH Mr. Jonathan Bulkley, of New 
York, Yale University has received $10,000 for 
the establishment of a fellowship in American 
history. 
PRESIDENT MORLEY, of Fargo College, North 
Dakota, is making progress towards collecting 
the $150,000 necessary to secure the pledge of 
Dr. Pearson, of Chicago, for $50,000 before the ' 
end of the present year. 
Mr. ANDREW CARNEGIE has presented $32,- 
500 to the Iron and Steel Institute, London, 
for the foundation of a research scholarship. 
THE troubles in the Russian universities ap- 
pear to be serious, haying spread from Kieff to 
St. Petersburg and Moscow. About 200 Kieff . 
students have been compelled to serve in the 
army as a punishment for their objecting to one 
of the professors. It is reported that six of 
them have been shot for refusing to renew their 
oath of allegiance to the Czar, but this may be 
incorrect. 
HomrrR CHARLES Priczr, M.S., has been 
elected to the chair of horticulture and forestry 
at the Iowa State College of Agriculture and 
Mechanic Arts. At Wellesley College, Miss 
Margaret C. Ferguson, B.S., has been appointed 
instructor in botany and Roxanna H. Vivian, 
B.A., instructor in mathematics. 
PROFESSOR FRANK THILLY, of the University 
of Missouri, asks us to state that there is no 
truth in the report that he had been called to 
the chair of ethics in Leland Stanford Junior 
University. ; 
Dr. F. PAScHEN, of the Technical Institute 
at Hanover, has been appointed full professor 
of physics in the University of Tubingen. 
Dr. FRANz Nissi, known for his work on 
the histology of the nervous system, has been 
promoted to an associate professorship of psy- 
chiatry at the University of Heidelberg. 
