June 5, 1903.] 



SCIENCE. 



919 



specimen of thunny which has been for many 

 years in the museum affords an excellent ex- 

 ample of what can be done by judicious paint- 

 ing. The splendid coloring of the Malay 

 python is displayed in a specimen presented 

 by Mr. Eothschild, as well as by a second ex- 

 ample, on which an artist was still engaged 

 at the time when this was written. In the 

 reptile gallery, which is in the more forward 

 condition, descriptive labels have already been 

 placed in several of the cases, in which the 

 specimens have been removed from the old 

 hideous sycamore stands and set on sanded 

 ground-work. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 



The Legislature of Michigan has passed a 

 bill appropriating $371,900 for the Michigan 

 College of Mines at Houghton for the bi- 

 ennium beginning July 1 next. The largest 

 item is one of $45,000 for the construction of 

 a metallurgical laboratory. 



Mr. James Stillman, of New York, has 

 given $50,000 to establish a contagious disease 

 ward in Stillman Infirmary, which he founded 

 a year ago at Harvard University. 



Mr. Frederick T. Ayer has added $50,000 

 to the $100,000 that he had already given to 

 the Lowell Textile School. 



Dr. Barton W. Evermann, ichthyologist of 

 the United States Fish Commission, has just 

 returned to "Washington from Axton, New 

 York, where he gave a course of twenty-five 

 lectures on ' Fish Culture ' and ' Fish and 

 Game Protection ' to the juniors and seniors 

 of the New York College of Forestry of Cor- 

 nell University. The class this year con- 

 sisted of twenty-two students and is the larg- 

 est in the history of the college. This course 

 is intended, first, to interest those who are to 

 become foresters in the lakes and streams of 

 the forest, that they may be saved from pollu- 

 tion to the injury of the fishes which inhabit 

 them; and second, to give the students some 

 acquaintance with the mammals, birds, and 

 other animals of the forest, their value, and 

 the necessity for the preservation of those 

 which are not noxioits. In addition to the 



formal lectures, the students were taken on 

 daily excursions for field observations. 



The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 

 assisted by several gifts made for the purpose, 

 has established a laboratory of physical chem- 

 istry to be opened in September, 1903, which 

 is to be devoted exclusively to research work 

 in that important subject. The laboratory 

 is to be under the directorship of Professor 

 Arthur A. Noyes, with whom will be asso- 

 ciated Professors H. M. Goodwin and Willis 

 R. Whitney. The researches will be carried 

 on in large part by a staff of research assist- 

 ants and associates working under their direc- 

 tion. Every facility will also be offered to 

 advanced students who wish to carry on inves- 

 tigations in this branch of science, either with 

 or without reference to an advanced degree. 

 The research laboratory is to occupy one floor 

 of a new building now being erected for the 

 purpose. It will consist mainly of a series of 

 small laboratories, each of which will afford 

 ample accommodation for two workers, and a ■ 

 well-equipped shop in which a skilled instru- 

 ment-maker will be regularly employed in 

 making and repairing apparatus for investiga- 

 tion work. Rooms for special purposes — 

 weighing, photographic work, glass-blowing, 

 pure-water distillation, storage of chemical 

 and physical apparatus, and the holding of 

 lectures and seminar meetings — will adjoin the 

 laboratories. The members of the laboratory 

 staff will offer a number of advanced lectvire 

 courses and will conduct several seminars on 

 physico-chemical subjects which will be open 

 to all those connected with the laboratory. 

 An announcement of these courses is made in 

 the program of the Research Laboratory issued 

 by the institute. 



At a meeting on May 18 of the Court of 

 Governors of University College, Sheffield, the 

 Duke of Norfolk presiding, resolutions were 

 adopted to the effect that in the interests of 

 higher edtication in the city and district it 

 was essential that Sheffield College should 

 have the powers and status of a university 

 similar to those granted to Birmingham, 

 Liverpool and Manchester, and also that ap- 

 plication should be made to the Privy Council 

 for a charter. ' 



