350 



SCIENCE. 



[X. S. Vol. XVIII. Xo. 454. 



itive horses, monkeys and uintatheres. Alto- 

 gether, there were secured over one hundred 

 and thirty specimens of turtles. Some of 

 these were more or less fragmentary, but there 

 were found many complete shells and, in addi- 

 tion, seven skulls. These specimens will serve 

 to throw light on the Eocene turtles, since 

 many of the species were originally based 

 on defective materials. Hitherto, skulls of the 

 Bridger species have been almost wholly un- 

 known. Of interesting genera whose skulls 

 were obtained this summer may be mentioned 

 Baena and Plastomenus. The materials which 

 were secured are to be employed in the prepa- 

 ration of a monograph of the fossil turtles of 

 North America, for the Carnegie Institution. 



The expedition which left Seattle on June 

 30, on the Fish Commission steamer Albatross 

 to investigate the salmon fisheries of Alaska 

 is expected, to return on the fifteenth of the 

 present month. President David Starr Jordan, 

 head of the commission, returned to Stanford 

 University some time since. Among other 

 members of Stanford University on the expe- 

 dition were Messrs. C. H. Gilbert, Harold 

 Heath, H. M. Spaulding and D. E. Eutter. 



The Canadian government steamer Nep- 

 tune sailed on August 22 from Halifax for 

 Hudson Bay and Arctic waters on an expedi- 

 tion lasting a year and a half with a view to 

 botanical, geological and natural history in- 

 vestigations. The party will take formal pos- 

 session of the Arctic Islands and the shore of 

 Baffin's Bay. 



It is announced that the relief ship Frith- 

 jof, of the Swedish Antarctic Expedition, will 

 be fitted with wireless telegraphy in order that 

 it may remain in communication with gun- 

 boat Uruguay sent by the Argentine govern- 

 ment. Baron Klinchowstrom accompanies the 

 relief expedition as zoologist. 



Me. Andrew Carnegie has imder the usual 

 conditions offered to give £6,000 for a library 

 building at Peterborough and £7,000 for a 

 library building at Erith, Kent. 



Mr. Edward D. Adams has given to the 

 American Museum of Natural History a 

 specimen of radium, which has been placed 

 on exhibition. 



Nature states that a general exhibition ar- 

 ranged by the Central Association of In- 

 ventors, of Bayreuth, for the purpose of 

 facilitating the sale of patents and copyrighted 

 patterns is to be held during September and 

 October next at Niiremberg. There are, it 

 is stated, more than 200,000 copyrighted pat- 

 terns in Germany and more than 140,000 

 patents, but one half of these are not in public 

 use, the reason being that the inventors are 

 not able to exploit their inventions. It was 

 because of this that the Central Association 

 came into being some years ago. Its purpose 

 is to assist the members to make their in- 

 ventions profitable to themselves, the ma- 

 jority of inventors not having the means to 

 do so. The association furnishes space to in- 

 ventors without means free of cost, and 

 charges no fees for effecting a sale. 



The British Medical Journal states that 

 in the Germanic Museum at ISTiiremberg there 

 has recently been placed a large medico-his- 

 torical collection of medals. A considerable 

 number of them were purchased at a sale held 

 not long ago at Amsterdam. 



According to the Journal of the American 

 Medical Association the Germans are plan- 

 ning to make an elaborate exhibit at the St. 

 Louis Exposition of everything connected 

 with medical instruction, especially in respect 

 to diagnostics and therapeutics. Professor v. 

 Bergmann is in charge of the matter, assisted 

 by a committee, which includes Drs. Kutner, 

 Kraus, Mikulicz, Orth, Eubner, Waldeyer, 

 Wassermann and others, nearly all of Berlin. 

 A circular inviting cooperation is to be sent 

 forthwith to all the prominent institutes and 

 firms throughout Germany. 



A PRESS despatch from Simla, India, states 

 that the Irrigation Commission has issued its 

 report. It proposes to lay out $150,000,000 in 

 twenty years on protective works, and also 

 $2,000,000 annually in loans for private irri- 

 gation works, the necessary funds to be raised 

 by loans, and the interest thereon to be charged 

 to the famine grant. 



On the initiative of the director of the St. 

 Petersburg Institute of Experimental Medi- 



