Decembek 18, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



915 



meet in Washington, and the Folklore Society 

 in New York. If the ' Jurassic Formation on 

 the Atlantic Coast ' is discussed should this be 

 done in Boston or in Washington ? If arrange- 

 ments are made for a winter meeting of Anthro- 

 pologists should it be done in New York or in 

 Boston ? We should like to suggest that in any 

 event all the societies meet in New York two 

 years hence. At that time the new buildings 

 of Columbia University can be placed at the 

 disposal of the societies and will offer much of 

 interest. New York University will also be 

 established in its fine buildings on its pictur- 

 esque site. Other attractions of great scien- 

 tific interest will be the Aquarium, the new 

 wings and collections of the American Museum 

 of Natural History, the Botanical Gardens and 

 perhaps the Zoological Park. 



The New York Aquarium in Castle Garden 

 was opened to the public on December 10th. 

 We hope to give in an early number some ac- 

 count of the excellent arrangements carried out 

 under the direction of Dr. Tarleton H. Bean, 



A COMMITTEE of the New York Zoological 

 Society met a committee of the Sinking Fund 

 Commission on December 11th, and formally 

 asked for the setting aside of 261 acres of land 

 in Bronx Park for the Zoological Park. The 

 members of the committee said that the 

 Society would raise $250,000 for the pur- 

 pose, and that they would collect $100,000 

 of this sum as soon as the necessary land had 

 been set aside for the Park. The Mayor and 

 Sinking Fund Commission will, we trust, decide 

 in favor of a plan so important for the city. 



The Derby and Mayer Museums, Liverpool, 

 will be enlarged at a cost of £72,000, but part of 

 the building will be used for technical schools. 



It is now proposed that the Sedgwick Memo- 

 rial Museum, Cambridge University, be erec- 

 ted upon a portion of the Downing College site, 

 and that the grace of the Senate which assigned 

 a site for the building on the old Botanic Gar- 

 den be rescinded. If the site be changed it 

 will be necessary to make new plans for the 

 building. 



The Hebdomadal Council of Oxford Uni- 

 versity has received and accepted an offer from 

 Professor Poulton to present a statue of Charles 



Darwin, to be made by Mr. Pinker, and to be 

 placed in the court of the University Museum. 



Sir Joseph Prestwich bequeathed, to take 

 effect on the death of Lady Prestwich, £800 to 

 the Geological Society of London for the estab- 

 lishment of a medal and fund to be awarded 

 once in three years. He also left his collection 

 of pamphlets and reprints to the Society. 



The Paris Academy of Sciences selected, on 

 November 23d, two candidates for the director- 

 ship of the Observatory of Paris, vacant by the 

 death of Tisserand. In the first ballot M. 

 Loewy received 42 votes, M. Callandreau 18, 

 and M. Poincare 1. In the second ballot M. 

 Callandreau received 48 votes, M. Stephan 2, 

 and MM. Poincare and Wolf each 1. MM. 

 Loewy and Callandreau are consequently the 

 two candidates presented by the Academy to 

 the Minister of Public Instruction. At the same 

 meeting of the Academy M. Michel Levy was 

 elected a member of the section of mineralogy, 

 in the place of the late M. Daubree. He received 

 54 votes, 2 being given to M. de Lapparent. 



Prof. Alpheus Packard was, on October 

 1st, elected an honorary member of the Russian 

 Entomological Society. 



Dr. Leonard J. Sanford, who formerly oc- 

 cupied the chair of anatomy and physiology in 

 the medical department of Yale University, 

 died in New Haven on December 12th, at the 

 age of 64 years. 



Dr. Emil Wolff, the chemist, died at Stutt- 

 gart on December 7th. 



According to Garden and Forest Mr. C. G. 

 Pringle has just returned from another botani- 

 cal journey in Mexico, where, during the past 

 season, he has secured about 20,000 herbarium 

 specimens in the valley of Mexico and in Cuer- 

 navaca. 



Dr. Nansen has ordered a yacht of twenty 

 tons to be built at Laurvig, and intends to con- 

 tinue on it his studies of the coast of Norway 

 and Spitzberg. 



The following items of news are from the cur- 

 rent number of Natural Science. A portion of 

 the bequest made to the Swedish Academy of 

 Sciences by A. F. Reguell, whose fortune was 

 make as a physician in Brazil, was set aside by 



