Aueust 13, 1897. ] 
from the estate of the late Professor Edward D. 
Cope and will, beginning with the next num- 
ber, be edited by Dr. Robert P. Bigelow, instruc- 
tor in biology in the Massachusetts Institute of 
Technology, assisted by an editorial committee 
and a board of associate editors whose names 
are not yet announced. 
THE Zoological Society of Tokyo has begun 
the publication of Annotationes Zoologice Japon- 
ensis, under the editorship of Professor K. Mit- 
sukuri, intended for contributions shorter than 
those contained in the Journal of the Univer- 
sity. Professor Mitsukuri contributes an in- 
teresting introduction on the development of 
zoology in Japan, making due acknowledg- 
ment of the great services of Professors Morse 
and Whitman. 
WE have received the first number of the 
second volume of the Bulletin of the Par&a 
Museum of Natural History and Ethnology. 
The number, published in May of the present 
year, is largely devoted to the somewhat belated 
report of the director, Dr. Emilis A. Goldi, for 
1895. There are attached to the museum a 
Zoological Garden and a Botanical Garden, a 
Library and a Meteorological Bureau. Numer- 
ous additions to these various institutions are 
reported during the year, the annual appropria- 
tion for the museum in 1895 being $70,000, and 
$12,000 each for the zoological and botanical 
gardens. The museum is visited daily by be- 
tween 500 and 600 persons. The Bulletin 
further contains an account of an expedition, 
chiefly for archeological research on the Rio 
Marac&é by A. P. de Lima Guedes, and four 
scientific papers. 
THE manuscripts of the late Julius Sachs, the 
eminent botanist, will be edited by Professor 
Noll, of Bonn. 
D. APPLETON & Co. announce that they will 
have ready for publication in the autumn the 
biography of Huxley prepared by his son. 
LONGMANS, GREEN & Co. will shortly pub- 
lish a new edition of ‘Ancient Stone Imple- 
ments, Weapons, and Ornaments of Great Brit- 
ain’ by Sir John Evans, President of the Brit- 
ish Association. The work will be thoroughly 
revised, as much new material has been dis- 
SCIENCE. 
. 
255 
covered since the first edition was published 
in 1872. 
THe Civil Tribunal at Paris dismissed, on 
July 22d, the claim for 5,000f. damages preferred 
by the publisher of the French translation of 
Dr. Nansen’s book against the Correspondant, 
in which Mme. Marie Dronsart reviewed Dr. 
Nansen’s career and gave many extracts from 
the English version of his book. 
PROFESSOR R. LYDEKKER contributes to the 
issue of Nature for July 15th an extended arti- 
cle entitled ‘ Species and Subspecies,’ based 
upon the articles contributed to this JoURNAL 
by the Hon. Theodore Roosevelt and Dr. C. 
Hart Merriam. Professor Lydekker concludes 
his article with the following suggestion : ‘“The 
question of the distinction between species and 
subspecies is undoubtedly one bristling with 
difficulties, and it is therefore one which in 
many cases is incapable of being definitely set- 
tled by an individual opinion. Although per- 
sonally convinced of the advisability of using 
specific names in a wide sense, and employing 
trinomials for the designation of the nearly re- 
lated forms, it may be suggested that an inter- 
national committee of zoologists should be 
formed to discuss the question in all its bear- 
ings. Needless to say, such a committee should 
include representatives of both the ‘splitting’ 
and ‘lumping’ interests; and if the points at 
issue were fairly debated, with a full determina- 
tion to give and take on both sides, it is diffi- 
cult to believe that a working compromise be- 
tween the extreme views could not be ar- 
ranged. Almost anything is better than the 
present condition of uncertainty and discrep- 
ancy.”’ 
THE Plague Commission sent by the Austrian 
government to Bombay to study the disease has 
presented a provisional report to the Vienna 
Academy of Science. According to the British 
Medical Journal the Commissioners state that 
they had opportunities of investigating the 
plague clinically in 70 cases, and that they had 
opportunities of making pathological and bac- 
teriological investigations on 47 bodies of per- 
sons who had died of the disease. Patholog- 
ically they say that three forms of plague can 
be distinguished: a septiczemic-heemorrhagic 
