918 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVII. No. 440. 



ment : Dr. E. A. de Sehweinitz, the Columbian 

 University, Wasliin^on, D. C; Dr. A. B. 

 Eichardson, the Columbian University, Wash- 

 ington, D. C. ; Dr. John Marshall, University 

 of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pa.; Dr. C. 

 Harrington, professor of hygiene. Harvard 

 University, Boston, Mass. The committee de- 

 sires to secure the cooperation of all those in 

 this country who are engaged in hygienic work, 

 both in attendance at the meeting in Brussels, 

 and in sending papers to the congress. The 

 congress will be divided into two sections, 

 hygiene and demography. The subjects which 

 will be considered are the relation of bacteria 

 and parasites to hygiene, the hygiene of foods, 

 the treatment and prevention of communicable 

 diseases, etc. The important siibject in its 

 various phases of the communicability of 

 tuberculosis will be discussed -by prominent 

 men. The fee for membership is 25 francs, 

 which may be sent to the Secretary-General, 

 M. le Dr. Felix Pulseys, Kue Porgeur, 1. a 

 Liege, Belgium. Those proposing to attend 

 or send papers will please notify E. A. de 

 Sehweinitz, Washington, D. C. 



A TESTIMONIAL signed by over 500 fellows 

 of the Zoological Society of London has been 

 presented to Mr. W. L. Sclater. It reads as 

 follows : 



We, the undersigned, Fellows of the Zoological 

 Society of London, desire to place on record our 

 appreciation of the .merits of Mr. William Lutley 

 Sclater and of his conduct in the recent contest 

 for the secretaryship of the society. Mr. Sclater 

 was summoned 'from Cape Town last January to 

 undertake the duties of secretary, and, although 

 he had some warning that opposition might be 

 expected, he could not have foreseen that, in 

 addition to his arduous duties as secretary, he 

 would have had to face a campaign of an unusual 

 kind or be involved, through no fault of his own, 

 in a position with which we greatly sympathize. 

 Throughout the recent trying circumstances Mr. 

 Sclater has acted with dignity and reserve which 

 may in some measure have sacrificed his own 

 interests, but which place him all the higher in 

 our estimation. We believe that his scientific 

 attainments, high character, and proved ability 

 would have fully satisfied the claims of the posi- 

 tion to which he had been provisionally elected, 

 and we can assure him that in returning to Cape 



Town he adds to those qualities the respect and 

 esteem of a wide circle of new friends. 



The Geographical Magazine learns from the 

 report of the last meeting of the board of 

 directors of the Siberian Railway that the 

 main line is now completed permanently ex- 

 cept for the portion circling Lake Baikal, 

 which it is hoped will be finished by the close 

 of 1904. The total cost of the line, including 

 the Baikal section, amounted to nearly 385,- 

 000,000 roubles. The number of immigrants 

 who have had grants of land allotted to them 

 is 611,494, and for colonization purposes a 

 sum of 30,000,000 roubles has been assigned. 

 To facilitate the acquisition of agricultural 

 implements and seeds, etc., twenty-nine depots 

 have been established. Arrangements have 

 been made for an efficient prospecting of the 

 country in the neighborhood of the railway, 

 with the view to the development of its min- 

 eral resources, and these have already led to 

 the discovery of oil in the vicinity of Sud- 

 jenka, in central Siberia, and near Cherem- 

 khovskoje, in the province of Irkutsk. A 

 special grant has also been made for the en- 

 couragement of gold prospecting, and an in- 

 vestigation of the Tenesei and Obi has re- 

 vealed the fact that these rivers are navigable 

 for ocean steamers for a distance of nearly 

 1,000 miles. 



Nature notes a great improvement in the 

 appearance and instructiveness of the exhibits 

 in the reptile and fish galleries of the British 

 Museum of Natural History, which were left 

 at the death of Sir W. H. Flower in their 

 original condition. Until the director under- 

 took the rearrangement, the cases were cram- 

 med with a number of faded and ' khaki '- 

 colored specimens, unaccompanied by any 

 descriptive labels. The duplicate and super- 

 fluous specimens have now, for the most part, 

 been weeded out, and those that are left placed 

 so that they can be well seen by visitors. In 

 many instances old specimens have either been 

 replaced by new ones or have been painted up 

 so as to give them, so far as possible, some 

 sort of resemblance to the living animals; 

 and this process of replacement and renova- 

 tion is being actively continued. A large 



