772 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. III. No. 73. 



pared, with the previous year. The oi'dinary 

 expenditure in 1895 had amounted to £23,460 

 16s. lOd., being £155 6s. 9d. less than that of 

 the previous year. Besides this a sum of £1,649 

 19s. Id. had been charged to extraordinary ex- 

 penditure. Of this sum £1,149 19s. Id. had 

 been devoted to the new scheme of drainage 

 for the society's gardens, and £500 to the 

 special acquisition of a giraffe for the menagerie. 

 Besides this expenditure, £1,000 had beeu do- 

 voted to paying off the last remaining portion 

 of the mortgage debt on the Society's freehold 

 premises, which were now valued at £25,000 

 and were absolutely free and unencumbered. 

 A second sum of £1,000 had been transferred to 

 a deposit account. After these payments a bal- 

 ance £1,391 Is. 2d. had been carried forward to 

 the credit of the present year. A new edition 

 of the list of animals in the Society's collection, 

 of which the last (the 8th) was published in 

 1883, had been prepared under the direction of 

 the Secretary. It would, it was hoped, be 

 ready for issue before the close of the present 

 year. A large number of accessions to the 

 library were reported. The number of visitors 

 to the gardens in 1895 had been 665,326, which 

 was greater than it had been in any year dur- 

 ing the past ten years. The number of animals 

 in the Society's collection on December 31st last 

 was 2,369, of which 768 were mammals, 1,267 

 birds and 334 reptiles. About 23 species of 

 mammals, 22 of birds and one of reptiles had 

 bred in the gardens during the summer of 1895. 

 General the Hon. Sir. Percy Fielding, Prof. 

 Alfred Newton, Sir Thomas Paine, Mr. E. Lort 

 Phillips and Lord Walsingham were elected 

 into the Council in the place of the retiring 

 members. Sir William H. Fowler was reelected 

 President; Mr. Charles Drummond, Treasurer, 

 and Mr. Philip Lutley Sclater, Secretary for the 

 ensuing year. 



GENERAL. 



Dk. N. L. Beitton has been elected director 

 of the New York Botanical Gardens and will 

 resign the chair of botany in Columbia Uni- 

 versity, though he will probably remain con- 

 nected with the University as professor emer- 

 itus. Prof. Lucien M. Underwood will be 

 called to the chair of botany in Columbia Uni- 

 versity. 



The Smithsonian Institution has received 

 from the State Department notification that the 

 Fourth Congress of Criminal Anthropology is 

 to be held at Geneva, Switzerland, under the 

 auspices of the Swiss government, from Au- 

 gust 24th to 29th of the present year. The gov- 

 ernment of Switzerland has, through its minister 

 in Washington, invited the United States to 

 send a representative to the Congress. Dr. 

 Thomas Wilson, curator of the Department of 

 Pre-historic Anthropology in the National 

 Museum, has attended two of these Congresses, 

 and prepared an elaborate report on the Second 

 Congress, held at Paris in August, 1889. This 

 was published in the Smithsonian report for 

 1890. It has not yet been decided whether or 

 not the United States will send a delegate this 

 year to Geneva. 



An effort is now under way in connection 

 with the National Educational Association to 

 bring about greater interest in the teaching of 

 science than has hitherto been shown by Ameri- 

 can botanists, zoologists, chemists, physicists, 

 etc. The new Department of Natural Science 

 Instruction is intended to bring together the 

 teachers of the natural sciences who are in- 

 terested in science as a means of culture and to 

 stimulate thought and discussion as to how this 

 end may best be obtained. What role should 

 botany, zoology, chemistry, physics, etc., play 

 in the mental development of man ? In what 

 way may the study of plants, animals, chemical 

 compounds and physical forces be made an ef- 

 ficient factor in a man's mental training? 

 When and how shall such study be made 

 a part of a man's training? These are 

 some of the cjuestions which will be dis- 

 cussed in the Department of Natural Science 

 Instruction irt the Buffalo meeting of the 

 National Educational Association on Thursday 

 and Friday afternoons (July 9 and 10), led by 

 Profs. Carhart (University of Michigan), Freer 

 (University of Michigan), Coulter (University 

 of Chicago), and President Jordan (Leland Stan- 

 ford University). Prof. Charles E. Bessej', of 

 the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, is Presi- 

 dent of the department, and Prof. Charles S. 

 Palmer, of the University of Colorado, Boulder, 

 is the Secretary. 



