DECEMBER 10, 1897.] 
Kine’s CoLnEcE, London, has received an 
anonymous gift of £25,000 towards the liquida- 
tion of its debt. 
Mr. Joun P. AsHutry, Pu.D., has been 
elected President of Albion College, at Albion, 
Mich., succeeding Dr. Lewis R. Fiske, who has 
resigned, owing to advanced age, after twenty 
years of service. 
Dr. E. G. LANCASTER has been appointed 
professor of psychology and pedagogy at Colo- 
rado College. 
A CHAIR of ‘tropical diseases,’ with Dr. J. 
E. Stubbert as the first incumbent, has been 
established in the New York University Medical 
College. 
A COMMITTEE has been formed in London to 
present a plan for a London University, to be 
_ ealled University of Westminster, in case the 
bill before Parliament meets with continued 
opposition. The present degree-conferring 
University of London would according to the 
plan remain unchanged, while the different 
institutions of London would form themselves 
into a faculty of law, a faculty of medicine, 
ete., each institution to be financially inde- 
pendent and only to agree on the nature and 
duration of the studies required for degrees and 
distinctions. 
DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 
IN REGARD TO THE MARINE BIOLOGICAL LAB- 
ORATORY AT WOODS HOLL, MASS. 
To THE Epitor oF Scrence.—A full and 
adequate rejoinder to the statement which 
appeared in SCIENCE October 8, 1897, has been 
prepared and is now ready. In our opinion, 
however, controversial matters relating to the 
management of ascientific institution, especially 
when consisting of details, statistics or mooted 
points, are out of place in public prints. The 
subject is not of general interest, and discussion 
of this kind tends to injure any institution in 
the public estimation. 
The undersigned, therefore, prefer to reply 
only to those concerned in the matter. To this 
end we shall issue to all members of the cor- 
poration and others concerned a detailed reply 
to the charges brought by the former Trustees. 
Others who may feel interested can obtain 
SCIENCE. 
879 
copies by applying to the Secretary of the Trus- 
tees of the Marine Biological Laboratory, 
Woods Holl, Mass., or to either of the under- 
signed. SAMUEL F’. CLARKE, ~ 
Epw. G. GARDINER, 
J. PLAYFAIR McMuRRIcH. 
SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 
Anthropologische Studien weber die Ureinwohner 
Brasiliens. Yon Dr. PAUL HHRENREICH. 
Braunschweig, Vieweg undSohn. 1897. 4to. 
Pp. 168. 30 Plates. 
This work ranks among the most valuable 
which have appeared for years in American 
Anthropology. It is, to be sure, somewhat 
limited in its area of observation, being princi- 
pally confined to the states of Matto Grosso, 
Goyaz and Amazonas in Brazil ; but thisis more 
than compensated by the abundance and accu- 
racy of the material, and the skill with which 
the author has brought it into bearing on the 
leading general questions relating to the Ameri- 
can race. 
These are treated in the general portion of 
the volume, occupying forty-five pages. It 
embraces two chapters, one on the aims and 
methods of physical anthropology and its bear- 
ings on ethnology ; the other specifically on the 
anthropologie position of the American race. 
Much of the former is'concerned with defining 
such terms as race, type, people, stem, family, 
etc. ; with the conclusion that race means blood 
relationship, and that the racial characteristics 
and variations are the only real objects of study 
in physical anthropology. The author is here on 
thin ice, and his definitions, carefully trimmed 
as they are, can often be punctured. Blood re- 
lationship, Blutverwandtschaft, really means 
nothing, for, in one sense, the whole human 
species is related by blood ; and as much might 
be said of other terms assumed to have a gener- 
ally recognized sense. This merely shows how 
needful it is to settle on an international ter- 
minology in anthropology. 
The chapter on the Amercan race is more 
satisfactory. He regards it as strictly one, in 
the Blumenbachian sense. As for the question, 
Whence it came? He regards it superfluous to 
inquire, as it has certainly been on the conti- 
nent from remotest human antiquity, probably 
