438 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. I., No. 15. 



needed, a tower runs through the central part of the 

 western section. The tower has a total height of 60 

 feet; it is built with double walls to isolate it from 

 the rest of the building, the outer walls carrying the 

 floors. 



Above the roof, the sides of the tower are almost 

 entirely of glass. There is free access to the four 

 sides of the tower, as well as to the top, which is at 

 a height of 72 feet from the basement-floor. Open- 

 ings are left at every story to allow light to be sent to 

 the central part of the tower. The piers of the first 

 floor are also so arranged as to obtain lines of con- 

 siderable length across the building. The doors are 

 so placed that adjoining rooms are readily thrown 

 open together. 



The laboratory, built to commemorate Ellen 

 Wayles Coolidge, grand-daughter of Thomas Jeffer- 

 son, has been named the ' Jefferson laboratory.' It 

 seems most appropriate that the name of one who 

 was among the first to recognize the value of univer- 

 sity education in this country should be connected 

 with a building to be devoted to the investigation of 

 some of the most interesting pi-oblems of nature. 



The cost of the building, with the necessary fix- 

 tures, will be about $115,000. There is a fund of 

 $75,000, the income of which is to be e.vpended for 

 the benefit of the physical laboratory, in addition 

 to the appropriations and expenditures now incurred 

 for physics by the college. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 

 Zoologists the world over will regret to learn of 

 the death of the genial and talented Wilhelm Karl 

 Hartwig Peters, director of the zoological museum of 

 Berlin, and younger brother of Dr. Peters of our own 

 Clinton observatory. Dr. Peters was born at Colden- 

 biittel, nearEiderstedt, in Schleswig, on April 22, 1815, 

 and died in Beiiin on the 20th of last month. Imme- 

 diately after completing his studies in medicine and 

 natural history at Copenhagen and Berlin, he under- 

 took a journey to southern France and Italy to 

 investigate the fauna of the Mediterranean. Eeturn- 

 ing to Berlin in 1840 as assistant in the anatomical 

 institute of the university, he soon laid his plans for 

 an independent investigation of the unexplored re- 

 gions of Mozambique, in which he received the 

 advice and support of his distinguished friends, Jo- 

 hannes Miiller, Humboldt, Pvitter, Ehrenberg, and 

 Lichtenstein, and the powerful patronage of the king, 

 Frederic William IV. He left for this journey — the 

 great event of his life — in 1812, and was absent more 

 than five years. Two years were spent in the inte- 

 rior of Mozambique; but he also made journeys to 

 the Comoro Islands, to Zanzibar, Madagascar, and the 

 Cape, and, before his return, visited the coast of India. 

 His Reise nach Mozambique, published between 1852 

 and 1SC8 in five quarto volumes, is the result of this 

 exploration, and is a model for faunal work of this 

 kind. Returning to Berlin in 1848, he was made pro- 

 sector at the institute, afterwards professor extraor- 

 dinary, and in 1857 succeeded Lichtenstein as full 

 professor in the university, and director of the zoo- 

 logical museum. The museum, under his administra- 



tion, early took the highest rank, which it has ever 

 since held ; and more than one American student has 

 been cordially received within its walls. Peters's 

 studies were mainly given to the world in Miiller's 

 Archiv, and the publications of the Berlin academy, 

 to which he was elected in 1851. They covered 

 nearly the entire field of zoology, but were specially 

 devoted to mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and fish. 

 His geographical discoveries in Mozambique were 

 published by Kiepert in 1849 in a map; and Bleek's 

 Languages of Mozambique contains a portion of his 

 linguistic studies. 



— The April number of the Harvard university 

 bulletin, which has just appeared, contains fifty-six 

 pages, of which thirty-one are devoted to the book- 

 list. We notice recorded a copy (one of thirty) of the 

 Maya manuscript in the Dresden library, reproduced 

 in polychromatic photography. The appendices con- 

 tain another instalment of Mr. Bliss's classified index 

 to the maps in Petermann's Geographische mitlheil- 

 ungen (twelve pages), and of Mr. Winsor's valuable 

 bibliography of Ptolemy's geography (seven p.ages). 

 The University notes mention additions to the zoo- 

 logical museum, the purpose of the observatory to 

 collect astronomical photographs, and give an account, 

 reprinted on p. 437, of the plans of the new Jefferson 

 physical laboratory. Among the appointments ga- 

 zetted, we notice that of Mr. J. Rayner Edmands 

 and Mr. John Ritchie, jun., to the observatory, to be 

 in charge of the time-service and the distribution of 

 astronomical information respectively. 



— A general veterinary establishment for the treat- 

 ment and care of lame, sick, or wounded horses, cat- 

 tle, sheep, and dogs, is to be maintained in connection 

 with the school of veterinary medicine, of Harvard 

 university. The hospital will probably be ready for 

 occupation June 15. The patients will be under the 

 professional charge of Mr. Charles P. Lyman, fellow 

 of the Royal college of veterinary surgeons, Loudon, 

 and professor of veterinary medicine in the univer- 

 sity. The school will also have at its disposal com- 

 modious buildings and pastures at the Bussey farm, 

 where cattle can be received and cared for, and where 

 horses not required for present use, or suffering from 

 lamenesses or illnesses which require long seasons of 

 rest, can receive all proper care and treatment, to- 

 gether with the benefit of grass-paddocks in summer, 

 and a warm straw-yard in winter. Any person hav- 

 ing sick or lame animals to be cared for can procure 

 for them the benefits of the establishment upon the 

 payment of a fixed sum per day, covering board, 

 treatment, and medicines. To each subscriber of ten 

 dollars a year, a nitmber of privileges will be given. 

 On Tuesdays and Fridays a free clinic will be held. 



• — The semi-annual meeting of the American 

 antiquarian society was held in Boston on April 25 at 

 eleven o'clock. About fifty members were present. 

 The reports of the officers showed that the affairs of 



