July 22, 



B.] 



SCIENCE. 



103 



tutiou of Civil Eugiueers. He also left a large 

 sum, apparently about £35,000, to St. Thomas 

 Hospital, London. 



The International Congress of Zoology, -which 

 opens at Cambridge on August 22d, -will be di- 

 ^^ded into four sections: (a) General Zoology; 

 (b) Vertebrata ; (c) Invertebrata (except the Ar- 

 thropoda); (d) Arthropoda. There will be two 

 general discussions, one on ' The Origin of the 

 Mammalia,' opened by Professor Osborn and 

 Professor Seelye, of London, and one on ' The 

 Position of Sponges in the Animal Kingdom,' 

 opened bj' Professor Delage, of Paris, and Mr. 

 Minchin, of Oxford. 



We are requested to state that it has been 

 agreed by the Executive Committee that ladies 

 attending the Fourth International Congress of 

 Zoology at Cambridge in the company of a 

 member may become associates on the payment 

 of 10s. This payment shall entitle them to at- 

 tend the general and sectional meetings, and 

 the receptions held during the meeting of the 

 Congress at Cambridge. An associate's ticket 

 shall not be transferable and shall not entitle 

 the holder to receive a copy of the final report. 



At the Washington meeting of the National 

 Educational Association the Natural Science 

 Department received reports from the several 

 committees of twelve charged with the prepara- 

 tion of a course in science for the secondary 

 schools. The subjects considered are physics, 

 chemistry, physical geography, zoology and 

 botany. The committees represent the Natural 

 Science Department of the National Educational 

 Association, the American Association for the 

 Advancement of Science, and the several As- 

 sociations of Colleges and Preparatory Schools. 

 The chairmen for the five subjects w'ere ap- 

 pointed as a committee to correlate the reports 

 and to present, as soon as practicable, a matured 

 scheme of science instruction for the schools. 

 The chairmen are : for physics, Professor E. 

 H. Hall, of Harvard ; for chemistry, Professor 

 Alexander Smith, University of Chicago ; for 

 physical geography, Professor Albert Perry 

 Brigham, Colgate University ; for zoology. 

 Professor H. B. Ward, University of Nebraska ; 

 for botany, Professor J. M. Coulter, University 

 of Chicago. 



The Russian Association of Naturalists and 

 Physicians will hold its tenth meeting at Kief 

 during the last week in August. 



The Ninth Congress of French Alienists and 

 Neurologists will open at Anglers on August 

 1st, under the presidency of Dr. Mottet. The 

 Fourth French Congress for the Study of Tuber- 

 culosis from the 27th of July to the 1st of Au- 

 gust, under the presidency of Professor Nocard. 



The Sixteenth Congress of the Sanitary Insti- 

 tute will be held at Birmingham, England, 

 from September 27th to October 1st, under the 

 presidency of Sir Joseph Fayrer. There will 

 be three sections : (1) sanitary science and pre- 

 ventive medicine ; (2) engineering and architec- 

 ture, and (3) physics, chemistry and. biology. 

 There will also be special conferences and an 

 exposition. Dr. Christopher Childs will lecture 

 before the Congress and Dr. A. Hill will give a 

 popular lecture. 



A PROPOSAL has been made by the Bombay 

 Medical and Physical Society to hold a congress 

 at Bombay at the beginning of the winter to 

 make a thorough study of the plague. 



The Mining Congress, in its recent session 

 in Salt Lake City, has adopted a memorial to 

 Congress asking for the creation of a depart- 

 ment of mines and mining. The next meeting 

 of the Congress will be in Milwaukee, beginning 

 September 7, 1899. 



Mayor Van Wyck, of New York, has made 

 a statement before the Board of Estirnates stat- 

 ing that he is not opposed to the Public Library, 

 the Botanical and Zoological Gardens and the 

 Museums, but he thinks that they should be , 

 owned and controlled by the city. He stated 

 that he would favor appropriating $15,000,000, 

 if necessary, for a public library. A few weeks 

 ago, however, the Mayor said that the $150,000 

 needed to prepare the site for the new public 

 library could not be given because the city had 

 exceeded its debt limits. The construction of 

 the library was authorized before the present . 

 administration came into office, and it is to be 

 hoped that the money already appropriated 

 cannot long be withheld. 



The Committee of the House of Commons 

 on the Museums of the Science and Art Depart- 

 ment has recommended, as we have already 



