128 



SCIENCE. 



[X. S. Vol. XVIII. Xo. 447. 



above mentioned geologic folios are sold for 

 25 cents each. Application for any and all 

 publications should be made to the Director, 

 U. S. Geological Survey, Washington, D. C. 

 A NOTE in the British Medical Journal 

 states that the opening up of Central and East- 

 ern Africa has revealed the fact that instead 

 of zebras being nearly extinct, these animals 

 exist in large numbers on the banks of the 

 Tama Kiver and in the province of Uljamba. 

 Unlike horses and cattle, they are proof 

 against horse sickness and the fatal tsetse fly. 

 At the present time, for land transport in war, 

 mules are almost universally employed, and 

 they are used for the carriage of mountain 

 batteries. Professor Cossar Ewart has at 

 Penycuik since 1895 been endeavoring by 

 zebra-horse hybrids to ' evolve ' an animal 

 that shall be superior to the mule for the pur- 

 poses for which that animal is usually em- 

 ployed. There are three kinds or types of 

 zebras — ^namely, Grevy's zebra of Shoa and 

 Somaliland, the mountain zebra (equus 

 zebra), once cormnon in South Africa, and 

 known as the common zebra, and the widely- 

 distributed Burchell group of zebras. The 

 zebra-horse hybrids were obtained by crossing 

 mares of various sizes with a zebra stallion, 

 a Burchell's zebra; and the new animals get 

 the name of ' zebrules.' They seem excellently 

 adapted by their build and general make, as 

 well as by the hardness of hoof, for transport 

 purposes and artillery batteries. The zebra 

 striping is often distinct, though in color they 

 more generally resemble their dam. They 

 stand fourteen hands high, with a girth meas- 

 urement of sixty-three inches. Their temper 

 seems to be better than that of the ordinary 

 mule, and they are exceedingly active, alert 

 and intelligent. The Indian government is 

 giving them a trial in Quetta for mountain 

 battery work, and they are being put, also, to 

 a practical test in Germany. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 

 The Royal Geographical Society has ap- 

 propriated £200 a year for five years, and the 

 general board of studies of Cambridge Uni- 

 versity the same sum for a School of Geog- 

 raphy at the university. 



Professor AY. X. Ferrin has been elected 

 president of the Pacific University at Forest 

 Grove, Oregon. 



Dr. Allen J. Smith, present professor of 

 pathology in the University of Texas, has 

 been elected professor of pathology at the 

 University of Pennsylvania, in succession to 

 Dr. Simon Flexner, director of the Rocke- 

 feller Institute, New York. 



Mr. Edgar Jasies Swift, A.B. (Amherst, 

 1886), who has held a fellowship at Clark Uni- 

 versity for the past two years and has just 

 taken an examination for the doctor's degree 

 there, has been appointed professor of psy- 

 chology and pedagogy in the Washington Uni- 

 versity at St. Louis. 



Mr. M. E. Stickney, of Harvard Univer- 

 sity, has been appointed instructor in botany 

 in Denison University to succeed Mr. W. W. 

 Stockberger, resigned. 



The following appointments have been 

 made at McGill University: Dr. J. G. Mc- 

 Carthy, to be assistant professor of anatomy; 

 Dr. J. T. Halsey, to be assistant professor of 

 pharmacology and therapeutics; Dr. E. A. 

 Xerry, to be lecturer in pharmacology and 

 therapeutics; Dr. S. Eidley Mackenzie, to be 

 lecturer in clinical surgery ; Dr. John McCrae, 

 to be lecturer in pathology; Dr. D. A. Shirres, 

 to be lecturer in neuro-pathology ; Dr. D. D. 

 McTaggart, to be lecturer in medico-legal 

 pathology. 



At University College, London, Dr. Page 

 May has been appointed lecturer on the 

 physiology of the nervous system, and Mr. J. 

 H. Parsons, lecturer on physiological optics. 



A CHAIR of agricultural botany has been es- 

 tablished at Eennes, with M. Danniel as pro- 

 fessor. 



Dr. Emil Kraepelin, professor of psychiatry 

 at Heidelberg, has been called to iEunich. 



Dr. W. Lossen, professor of chemistry at 

 Konig-sberg, has retired. 



Dr. Carl Hugo Huppert, professor of med- 

 ical chemistry at the German University of 

 Prague, will retire at the end of the present 

 semester. 



