June 18, 1897.] 



SCIENCE. 



953 



ment has presented an interim report calling 

 attention to the peril of destruction by fire to 

 which the priceless collections at the South 

 Kensington Museum are exposed. After de- 

 scribing the general character of the buildings 

 and their inflammable structure, the report goes 

 on to observe that the reason why the structural 

 alterations necessary for the protection of the 

 collections from fire have not been made appears 

 to be that the completion of the permanent 

 buildings has always been in the contemplation 

 of successive governments, and the committee 

 regard it as their immediate duty to lay before 

 the House of Commons their very strong 

 opinion that permanent buildings for the ade- 

 quate accommodation of the collections at South 

 Kensington should be proceeded with without 

 delay. 



A THIRD exhibition of recent geological work 

 was opened on June 1st at the Paris Museum of 

 Natural History. The Times states that Eng- 

 land contributes some geological charts and 

 India some meteorites. M. Schuck sends speci- 

 mens of Transvaal auriferous rocks ; M. le- 

 Feuvre, Chilian nitrates ; M. Chaefanjon, Cen- 

 tral Asian rocks and Chinese coal ; M. Chauvau, 

 Madagascar gold ore, and the Dutch govern- 

 ment a large geological chart of Java. 



There will be held at Berlin in October an 

 International Congress on Leprosy, to which the 

 United States Department of State has been in- 

 vited to send delegates. 



The daily papers report that the movable 

 floor of the great dome of Yerkes Observatory 

 fell 45 feet on May 29th. The damage is con- 

 fined to the floor and the machinery immediately 

 connected with it. The cause of the accident 

 has not yet been announced. 



In view of the 20th annual convention of 

 the National Electric Light Association, which 

 opened on June 8th at Niagara Falls, the Elec- 

 trical World gives an elaborately illustrated 

 review of the electrical installation of the Falls. 

 The total horse power of the Falls is estimated 

 at about 2,500,000, of which about 52,000 will 

 be required for the present installation. This 

 will lower the level of the Falls by about two 

 inches. At the present time the electro-chemi- 

 cal industries use 11,000 horse power, of which 



the most important are those for the manufac- 

 ture of aluminium, carborundum, sodium and 

 calcium carbide. 



We learn from Natural Science that a large 

 addition is being made to the Bergen Museum. 

 To the cost, which will exceed $40,000, the Nor- 

 wegian government has contributed half, while 

 smaller sums have been given by the munici- 

 pality of Bergen and by private persons. The 

 number of visitors to the museum was over 

 50,000 in 1896. 



A LABORATORY of experimental phonetics 

 has been established under the chair of com- 

 parative philosophy of the College de France. 



The new Medical School buildings of Guy's 

 Hospital, London, were recently opened by the 

 Prince of Wales. The Treasurer stated that 

 nearly $500,000 had already been received for 

 the endowment fund of the hospital in answer 

 to the appeal of the Prince of Wales. 



With the concurrence of the Astronomer 

 Royal, a site has been fixed in Greenwich Park 

 for the new magnetic observatory. 



In a notice of Mr. J. B. Leiberg's report of 

 his botanical survey of the Coeur d'Alene 

 mountains, Idaho, in the summer of 1895 (Con- 

 trib. U. S. Natl. Herb., Vol. V., No. 1), in the 

 current number of the American Naturalist, Dr. 

 Bessey remarks: " It is interesting to note that, 

 in spite of the fact that this report has a marked 

 economic flavor, all measurements are metric 

 throughout. Certainly if the United States De- 

 partment of Agriculture can safely use the 

 metric measurements in a bulletin dealing with 

 topography, drainage, climate, mineral deposits, 

 agricultural capacity, agricultural products, 

 grazing lands, native food plants, utilization of 

 water supply, forest resources, forest destruc- 

 tion, forest preservation, etc., botanists need no 

 longer fear to make use of such measurements 

 in their books, even of the most popular 

 character." 



Investigations by Tangl, of Budapest, 

 which are reported on in Pfliiger's Archiv, are 

 of interest to those who have the management 

 of horses. He finds that digestion proceeds 

 more rapidly in the horse if eating is followed 

 by active exercise than if it is followed by a 

 period of rest. This is the opposite of what 



