SEPTEMBER 24, 1897. ] 
copper salts, both soluble and insoluble, 
of various strengths, and also in keeping 
oysters on a bottom of iron or copper salts 
—including rusty iron, old copper and copper 
fillings—but in none of these experiments (the 
full details of which will be published later) 
have they got sufficiently consistent and contin- 
uous results to enable them to determine whether 
or not the animal obtains its copper from the 
contents of the alimentary canal or from the 
water through the surface of the body. These 
experiments and observations are still being car- 
ried on. They add that the green oysters 
containing copper are found in some localities 
where there can be no question of copper mines 
or old copper from ships’ bottoms, and suggest 
that the pigmentation may be due to a dis- 
turbed metabolism whereby the normal copper 
of the body becomes stored up in certain cells. 
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 
Ir will be possible for Columbia University to 
open its academic year at its new site on No- 
vember 4th, though there may be some delay 
in certain of the laboratory courses. It is note- 
worthy that of the six buildings now erected, 
two are for general university purposes, a li- 
brary and university hall (which at present con- 
tains only the powerhouse and gymnasium), 
while the four other buildings are for the sci- 
ences, Schermerhorn Hall for the natural 
sciences, Havermeyer Hall for chemistry, and 
halls for physics and engineering. These build- 
ings for the sciences have been erected at a cost 
of over $1,200,000, and demonstrate the im- 
portance of the place now occupied by science 
in a modern university. 
AT the opening exercises of Dartmouth Col- 
lege, President Tucker stated that the plans are 
well formulated for the proposed new physical 
laboratory, the result of the $75,000 bequest of 
the late Charles T. Wilder, of Lebanon, N. H. 
The committee has set apart $50,000 for its 
erection and $20,000 for maintenance. Addi- 
tional appropriations have been made for an 
observatory, foundations for which will be laid 
at once. 
OF the colleges that opened last week, Dart- 
mouth, Lafayette and Dickinson report increases 
SCIENCE. 
485 
in the entering classes, which are 185, 106 and 
60 respectively. The classes at Union and Be- 
loit are smaller than usual. 
THE Hon. William L. Wilson, formerly mem- 
ber of Congress and Postmaster-General, was 
inaugurated as President of Washington and 
Lee University, Lexington, Va., on September 
15th. Addresses were made by President Gil- 
man, Johns Hopkins University ; Chancellor 
Kirkland, Vanderbilt University, and Professor 
Cameron, in the place of President Patton, 
Princeton University. President Wilson made 
an inaugural address. 
THE Rey. James G. K. McClure, a Presbyte- 
rian clergyman, has been elected President of 
Lake Forest University. 
AT Union College Mr. Frank 8. Thompson, 
A.B. (Princeton), has been appointed assistant 
in physics, and Dr. A. A. Tylor, A.B. (Lafay- 
ette) and Ph.D. (Columbia), instructor in bi- 
ology. 
Dr. W. E. THOMSON has been appointed pro- 
fessor of physiology at Anderson’s College, Glas- 
gow. 
PROFESSOR CARL FRIEDHEIM, of Berlin, has 
been appointed professor of inorganic chemistry 
in the University at Bern, and Dr. Rodet pro- 
fessor of bacteriology at the University at Lyons. 
DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 
TYPES IN NATURAL HISTORY AND NOMENCLA- 
TURE OF RODENTS. 
To THE EDITOR OF SCIENCE: Three commu- 
nications have recently appeared in ScIENCE, 
directly or indirectly relating to work of my 
own, and I would ask your permission to say a 
few words concerning them. 
The first two are Mr. Charles Schuchert’s 
paper on ‘Types in Natural History*, and Dr. 
Merriam’st} critique on it, and it is to the latter 
I would first refer. 
With characteristic emphasis Dr. Merriam 
scorns Mr. Schuchert’s suggestions for further 
names to represent different classes of types, 
and incidentally speaks of ‘several obsolete 
*SCIENCE, V., p. 636, April 23, 1897. 
{Screnc#, V., p. 731, May 7, 1897. 
