May 19, 1911] 



SGIENCS 



769 



higli atmosphere will also be made in connec- 

 tion with aviation. The president of the com- 

 mittee is the marine minister, and representa- 

 tives of the chief institutes, academies and 

 societies which take interest in sea investiga- 

 tions have been appointed as members. In 

 addition the committee has a scientific staff 

 of its own; it receives a yearly grant from the 

 Italian government of 60,000 lira; and the 

 ships for the cruises are supplied by the 

 Italian navy. Four cruises in the Adriatic 

 Sea have taken place already, the program of 

 which was agreed upon with the delegates of 

 the Austrian government, and a fifth cruise 

 will soon start. 



The report of the departmental committee 

 appointed to report on the present condition 

 and the future development of the collections 

 comprised in the Science Museum at South 

 Kensington and the Geological Museum in 

 Jermyn-street, has been issued as a parliamen- 

 tary white paper. According to an abstract in 

 the London Times the committee finds that the 

 objects now exhibited are so much crowded 

 that their due classification and utilization are 

 impossible. Buildings twice the size of those 

 now used would be fully utilized by the exist- 

 ing collections without the addition of a single 

 specimen. The committee states that the 

 physics section is hopelessly overcrowded. In 

 the motor car and aeronautical groups, both 

 early construction and later developments will 

 require further illustration. The electrical 

 engineering section requires to be increased by 

 five or six times its present dimensions. In 

 no section is there more urgent need of early 

 action to secure for the museum examples of 

 instruments and appliances that have marked 

 the opening of a new era in invention and in- 

 dustry. A conference room, where scientific 

 or technical societies might meet, a large lec- 

 ture theatre, public demonstrations in the gal- 

 leries, and the exhibition of temporary collec- 

 tions are also suggested. It is recommended 

 that the geological survey offices and library 

 and the Museum of Practical Geology, which 

 are now cramped by the limitations of the 

 building in Jermyn-street, should be grouped, 



as at present, in a single building, and it would 

 be of great advantage to have that building 

 erected as part of the general scheme at South 

 Kensington. If the collections in the Science 

 Museum and in the Jermyn-street Museum 

 were brought together they would provide the 

 basis of a collection that would be complete as 

 regards stratigraphical and economic geology. 

 Such a collection in the new buildings, with 

 the systematic collection of minerals and the 

 paleontologieal collections in the British 

 Museum (Natural History), would represent 

 at a single center the whole field of geological 

 science. In most of the departments of sci- 

 ence and its applications, the committee con- 

 cludes, the museums contain much that is of 

 great historical interest and value. They are 

 rich in specimens, instruments, machines and 

 models selected and exhibited in such a man- 

 ner as to repay systematic examination by the 

 student. In many sections, however, the col- 

 lections are now far below the standard which 

 it is clear they ought to reach in these matters, 

 and their proper organization is impossible in 

 the existing accommodation. A science mu- 

 seum in which all branches of physical science, 

 pure and applied, and the scientific and eco- 

 nomic work of the geological survey shall be 

 adequately illustrated in close proximity to the 

 other great museums at South Kensington 

 would be of incalculable benefit alike to intel- 

 lectual progress and to industrial development. 



UNIVEBSITY AND EDVCATWNAL NEWS 



At the recent session of the Alabama legis- 

 lature the University of Alabama was given 

 an additional appropriation of $300,000, to 

 be expended during the next quadrennium for 

 maintenance and new buildings. 



Two gifts from Mr. Carnegie to the Car- 

 negie Technical Schools were announced last 

 week. On his recent visit to Pittsburgh he 

 presented the schools with a valuable 725-acre 

 tract of land that he had owned for some 

 years at Carver's Ferry, twenty-five miles up 

 the Allegheny River from Pittsburgh. It will 

 be converted at once into an experimental 



