842 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. V. No. 126. 



use of the Society in Paris, the dedication cere- 

 monies having tal^en place on January 14th, 

 President Faure assisting. The cost of the 

 building alone was $100,000, to which must be 

 added the cost of the ground, $80,000. On 

 the ground floor is the large meeting room, 

 which, including the communicating conver- 

 sation room, measures 72x49 feet, and is of 

 interest because of the peculiar construction of 

 the floor, whereby it may be mechanically low- 

 ered at the platform end and thus in a few min- 

 utes be converted into a sloping hall for meet- 

 ings. The upper floors, in addition to oflices, 

 committee rooms, etc., contain ample room for 

 the valuable library, a laboratory, a photo- 

 graphic room and the residence of the General 

 Secretary. The building was constructed in the 

 short space of nine months from designs by 

 Professor Delman, in the style of architecture 

 of Louis XIV. 



It is stated in the British Medical Journal 

 that a professor of the Paris Natural History 

 Museum accidentally discovered an entrance 

 into subterranean passages running underneath 

 the Jardin des Plantes and a part of the Boule- 

 vard Saint-Marcel. The archives of the Mu- 

 seum furnish proof that these galleries were 

 constructed by the Romans ; in the fifteenth 

 and eighteenth centuries they were repaired 

 and consolidated, and are now in perfect order. 

 Nothing is known as to the purpose they served. 

 M. Armand Vire, a corresponding member of 

 the Museum, asked for permission to use the 

 passages as a laboratory for researches on ani- 

 mal life inhabiting caverns, and studying the 

 successsive phases in the transformation of these 

 degenerate forms of life, and the laboratory was 

 inaugurated a few days ago. M. Vire, followed 

 by fifty invited guests, bareheaded and stoop- 

 ing, each carrying a candle, traversed the 

 labyrinth of galleries until they reached a round 

 hall, thereof of which is supported by a stone 

 column. This is the principal laboratory. It 

 contains stone tables with perfectly flat surfaces. 

 The water supply is assured by a good system 

 of pipes. Seine water was in the first instance 

 used, but the animals died. They were re- 

 placed by others, which were given spring 

 water and are in a flourishing condition. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 



Cambridge University rejected, on May 

 21st, the proposal to confer degrees upon women 

 by a vote of 1,713 to 662. 



A COMMITTEE of the Board of Trustees of the 

 College of the City of New York has recom- 

 mended that eiglit assistants be appointed to 

 assistant professorships, with salaries from 

 $2,500 to $3,500, according to term of service. 

 The promotions are expected to include Charles 

 A. Doremus, chemistry and physics ; Ivan 

 Sickles, natural history ; and Gustave Legras, 

 J. R. Sim and 0. R. Smith, mathematics. 



Miss Mary Cloyd Burnley, of Swarth- 

 more, Penn., who will receive the degree of 

 B.A. from the Woman's College of Baltimore 

 in June, has received the fellowship in chem- 

 istry from Bryn Mawr College for next year. 

 Miss Burnley also receives a summer scholar- 

 ship in biology at the Marine Biological Labo- 

 ratory at Wood's Holl, Mass. , from the Woman's 

 College. 



Dr. Frbch has been promoted to a full 

 professorship of geology in the University of 

 Breslau, Dr. Carl Paal to a full professorship 

 of pharmaceutical and applied chemistry in the 

 University of Erlangen, and Dr. Raphael Prei- 

 herr v. Erlanger and Dr. Paul Samassa to associ- 

 ate professorships of zoology in the University of 

 Heidelberg. Dr. Bredt, of Bonn , has been made 

 full professor of chemistry iu the Polytechnic 

 Institute at Aix, and Professor Franz Meyer, 

 decent in mathematics in the School of Mines 

 at Klausthal, has been called to the University 

 of Konigsburg. 



A special course in paleontologic geology 

 will be given by Mr. Stuart Weller at the Uni- 

 versity of Chicago during the summer quarter 

 beginning July 1st. The course will be devoted 

 to the laboratory study of fossil invertebrates. 

 Its aim will be to give instruction and training 

 in the identification of fossils and in the in- 

 terpretation of fossil faunas. The work will 

 be entirely individual in its character and 

 will be adapted to the special wants and needs 

 of each student. The ofiering of the course is 

 experimental and its repetition will depend 

 upon the demand which may be found for it. 

 There will accompany this a class-room course 



