Januaet 3, 1908] 



SCIENCE 



33 



this does not appear to be a legitimate con- 

 sequence of the earth's rotation. Moreover, 

 Taylor goes on to say that the two rivers least 

 deflected are the Murrumbidgee and the 

 Murray, " which is what one would expect, 

 since their course is practically at right angles 

 to the meridians." But the deflective force 

 being independent of azimuth, and these two 

 rivers being farther from the equator than 

 any other members of the Murray system, they 

 are precisely the two that should show the 

 greatest deflection. Finally, no adequate con- 

 sideration is given to other possible controls 

 ■of the river courses in question; yet in view 

 of the fact that the left-hand curving of the 

 rivers leads them toward the lower part of the 

 trunk river, it may well be that their courses 

 are essentially consequent upon the various 

 processes that have in a general way given 

 shape to the Murray basin. It does not, there- 

 fore, seem warranted to regard these Austra- 

 lian rivers as having been deflected by the 

 earth's rotation. 



W. M. D. 



THE WORK OF OVR LARGER MUSEUMS AS 

 SHOWN BT THEIR ANNUAL REPORTS 



A NUMBER of museum reports, including 

 those of our largest institutions, have ap- 

 peared during the past summer, all somewhat 

 belated, though any one acquainted with the 

 work of museums can understand and excuse 

 much of this delay. They comprise the re- 

 ports of the United States National Museum, 

 American Museum of Natural History, Field 

 Museum of Natural History, Carnegie Mu- 

 seum, Museum of the Brooklyn Institute 

 and the Public Museum of Milwaukee. These 

 are the largest of our museums and it may 

 be well to note what they are doing for the 

 public. 



The cramped and crowded condition of the 

 present building of the United States National 

 Museum precludes many changes in or addi- 

 tions to material on exhibition, but the acces- 

 sions to the collections have been many and 

 valuable. The most important among them 

 were the collection of arms, numbering 569 

 pieces, deposited by the United States Cart- 

 ridge Company, and the Schaus collection of 



Lepidoptera, comprising about 75,000 speci- 

 mens. That research work has not flagged is 

 shown by the list of papers published in the 

 Proceedings, and the liberal policy of allowing 

 others than members of the museum staff to 

 study material or publish the results of their 

 observations. The list includes many names 

 and covers a great range of subjects. 



As a forecast of future arrangements in 

 connection with the new museum building, it 

 is noted that this will contain the collections 

 of archeology, ethnology, natural history and 

 geology; that a portion of the Smithsonian 

 building will be given over to art and that the 

 present building will contain the technical 

 collections. 



As to art, the gifts of the Freer and Evans 

 collections provide the opportunity for re- 

 moving the stigma that the United States is 

 the only large nation without a national gal- 

 lery of art. 



The report of the American Museum of 

 Natural History is, as usual, somewhat brief 

 and formal, though presenting a concise view 

 of the year's work. 



It seems to be taken for granted that mu- 

 seum reports will only be read by those di- 

 rectly concerned, and, acting on this assump- 

 tion, little is done to make them interesting, 

 though the illustrations probably appeal to the 

 average man rather than the text. 



Two prominent features of the year are the 

 acquisition of a considerable number of skele- 

 tons of whales, the commencement of a life- 

 sized reproduction of a sulphurbottom whale 

 and the installation of a number of new and 

 beautiful bird groups. Hitherto cetaceans 

 have been but poorly represented in this mu- 

 seum and it is the evident intention to remedy 

 this defect. The bird groups are an attempt 

 to show certain phases of the bird life of 

 North America in a more realistic and more 

 beautiful manner than has hitherto been done. 

 The methods employed are an adaptation and 

 amplification of those in use, or suggested, 

 and the results far in advance of those previ- 

 ously attained. Groups of animals may be 

 treated from various standpoints, the one most 

 commonly taken being that introduced by the 

 British Museum, in which birds or other ani- 



