806 
which compete with one another by eating the 
same food. Another exhibit contains speci- 
mens of the shell-fish of the district, showing 
stages in the life-history and growth, legal and 
illegal sizes, pearl formations and pearls. A 
ease is devoted toa display of printed matter, 
photographs, drawings and lantern slides, illus- 
trating the publications, both administrative 
and scientific, of the Lancashire Sea Fisheries 
Committee, and other work bearing upon the 
fisheries of the district. The drawings and 
sketches include a number made by Professor 
Herdman in illustration of his joint investiga- 
tion with Professor Boyce on the diseases of 
oysters and the connection between the oyster 
and disease. s 
THE Senckenbergische Naturforschende Gesell- 
schaft at Frankfort celebrated its eightieth 
anniversary on May 30th, and has now pub- 
lished its Bericht, giving an account of the 
celebration, including the official address by 
Professor Heinrich Reichenbach, the subject of 
which was ‘A Review of the Progress of Biology 
during the Past Highty Years.’ 
THE seventh International Congress of Navi- 
gation will be held at Brussels during July of 
next year. 
THE Walsingham Medal for 1898 is offered at 
Cambridge University for a monograph or essay 
giving evidence of original research on any 
botanical, geological or zoological subject, 
zoology being understood to include animal 
morphology and physiology. The competition 
is open to graduates of the University who are 
under the standing of M. A. on October 10, 
1898, on or before which date the essays are to 
be sent to Professor Newton, Magdalene Col- 
lege. 
THE trustees of the New York Public Li- 
brary, Astor, Lennox and Tilden Foundations, 
have announced that the design submitted by 
Carrere & Hastings for the new library build- 
ing, to be erected on the site of the Forty-sec- 
ond street reservoir, has been accepted, and the 
prize in the competition awarded to that firm. 
In addition to the relief map of the State and 
of the Catskill regions issued by the University 
of the State of New York, the Regents have 
authorized one of the Adirondacks and another 
SCIENCE. 
[N.S. Vou. VI. No. 152, 
of Manhattan Island which will show its 
physical features before they were altered by 
civilization. The chief interest of this action 
is, however, in the notice to university institu- 
tions that duplicates of these relief maps will 
be made in quantity and furnished to the 
schools either for cash or as a part of their ap- 
portionment at a comparatively trifling cost, so 
that many schools can hereafter be provided 
with these valuable maps. 1,000 copies of the 
mushroom charts, the publication of which 
created so great interest that the edition was 
exhausted almost immediately, have been 
ordered by the Regents in chart form for wall 
use. Hach institution will be entitled to one 
free in sheets or mounted on muslin and rollers 
by paying the cost of such mounting. 
THE library of the late Professor Carl Vogt 
has been purchased by the Senckenbergische 
Naturforschende Gesellschaft of Frankfurt. 
THE Paris Conservatoire Nationale des Arts et 
Métiers announces a series of public and free 
courses of lectures on the application of science 
to the arts. These lectures are given in the 
evenings and continue throughout the winter. 
The lecturers include M. J. Hirsch, M. J. Vi- 
olle, M. Marcel Deprés, M. Th. Schloesing and 
other eminent French men of science. 
AT the anniversary meeting of the New York 
Academy of Medicine, on November 18th, an 
address was given by Dr. Hermann M. Biggs 
on ‘Sanitary Science, the Medical Profession 
and the Public.’ 
A REPORT by M Descubes has been presented 
to the French Chambers of Deputies recom- 
mending the’plan of connecting Paris with the 
sea by a maritime canal, proposed by M. de la 
Grie. The length of this canal would be 185 km., 
its width at least 35 m., and its depth 6.20 m. 
The cost is estimated at about $30,000,000, and 
M. de la Grie is prepared to organize a company 
to construct the canal if it is allowed the right 
to collect tolls for ninety-nine years. 
ATarecent meeting of the New York Li- 
brary Club, Dr. John §. Billings described the 
method of disinfection of books by formalin va- 
por. He said, according to the New York Med- 
ical Record, that in some experiments made 
recently, at the laboratory of the University of 
