282 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. III. No. 60. 



Efforts are now being made to have the 

 Legislature arrange for the permanent continu- 

 ance of the geological study of the State of 

 Maryland by providing for a Slate Geological 

 Survey. Prof William Bullock Clark will be 

 placed in charge. 



Prof. H. Marshall Ward, professor of 

 botany in the University of Cambridge, is giving 

 XI course of three lectures on ' Some Aspects of 

 Modern Botany ' at the Royal Institution. The 

 <Jourse began on February 13th. 



A COPY of Audubon's Birds of North America 

 is offered for sale in New York for $1,800. It is 

 said to be unused and in the original binding, 

 while alarge part of the edition of 100 copies has 

 had the margins of the plates- reduced in size 

 by rebinding. 



We learn from the British Medical Journal 

 that fire broke out in one of the rooms of the 

 Laboratory of the Edinburgh Royal College of 

 Physicians on the night of January 31st, and re- 

 sulted in disastrous consequences. The ap- 

 paratus and specimens in one room were en- 

 tirely destroyed by fire, and as these specimens 

 had been brought together after the labor of 

 years; the loss is irreparable. Several other 

 rooms and their contents, including the chemi- 

 cal room, were seriously damaged by smoke and 

 water. Had the fire not broken out in a room 

 on the top fiat and at an outside wall the results 

 might have been vastly more serious. As it is, 

 much has been destroyed that can never be re- 

 placed, even had insurances existed to the 

 full. The work of the laboratory has been 

 greatly disorganized, and some considerable 

 time must elapse before the new buildings be- 

 tween Forrest Koad and Bristo street are 

 ready for occupation. 



Dr. Barnes has been elected the next Presi- 

 dent of the British Medical Association, which 

 meets this year at Carlisle. Two addresses 

 are to be given, one in Medicine by Sir Dyce 

 Duckworth, and one in Surgery by Dr. Rod- 

 erick Maclaren, and there are to be nine 

 Sections, namely: Medicine, Surgery, Obstet- 

 rics, Public Health, Psychology, Pathology and 

 Bacteriology, Ophthalmology, Diseases of Chil- 

 dren, Medical Ethics. 



Prof. Burdon Sanderson has delivered a 



Friday evening lecture before the Eoyal Insti- 

 tution on Carl Ludwig and the mechanical phys- 

 iology with which Ludwig's name is so closely 

 identified. Prof Sanderson said that the neo- 

 vitalistic movement was already on the wane, 

 and certainly that if any advance in knowledge 

 is to be made the methods of research and rea- 

 soning adopted must be those of the Ludwig 

 school. 



The Transactions of the American Microscop- 

 ical Society, just published, contain a detailed 

 account of the 18th annual meeting held at 

 Cornell University last August, of which a 

 report was given at the time in this journal. 

 The next annual meeting of the Society will be 

 held at Pittsburg, Pa., August 18, 19 and 20, 

 1896, under the presidency of Dr. A. Clifford 

 Mercer, of Syracuse, New York. 



Hon. a. D. White, formerly President of 

 Cornell University, appeared on February 10th 

 before the Senate Committee on a National Uni- 

 versity. He argued in favor of the plan, say- 

 ing that in this respect the United Stated gov- 

 ernment is behind the European states. He 

 contended that instead of weakening other uni- 

 versities, as had been claimed, the establish- 

 ment of a National institution would strengthen 

 all other seats of learning. It is expected that 

 the committee will report favorably. 



Dr. Daniel Denison Slade, lecturer on 

 comparative osteology in Harvard University, 

 and known for his contributions to osteology, 

 zoology and botany, died at Chestnut Hill, Mass., 

 on February 11th, aged 71 years. 



Mr. G. B. Howes announces in Nature for 

 January 23d, the discovery by Mr. J. P. Hill that 

 the Bandicoot, Perameles obesula, possesses a 

 true allantoic and highly vascular placenta of 

 a discordal and most probably deciduous type. 

 This, taken in connection with what is known 

 to occur in Phascolaretus, weakens the line of 

 demarcation between the marsupials and other 

 mammals, or rather causes a slight overlapping 

 of the two groups. 



The contents of the last issue of the Bulletin 

 of the Johns Hopkins Hospital are very different 

 from what most people would expect to find in 

 a medical journal. There are three papers read 

 by Prof William Osier and one read by Mr. W. 



