272 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIV. No. 346. 



as the exports to those islands during the year 

 have aggregated about $25,000,000. 



The St. Petersburg Novoe Vremya, as reported 

 by Reuter's Agency, learns from Yeniseisk 

 that Lieutenant Kolomiitseff, in command of 

 the steamer Zaria, which has on board the 

 members of the Russian Polar expedition, un- 

 der Baron Toll, has just ai'rived at that place 

 to re-coal. Lieutenant Kolomiitseff reports that 

 the Zaria wintered in the Bay of Taimyr in 

 76° 8^ north latitude, and 95° 6^ east longitude, 

 and that the winter passed fairly well except 

 for some cases of scurvy among the crew. 

 Lieutenant Kolomiitseff twice endeavored to 

 reach Kamchatka by land, but without success. 

 He started on his first attempt on February 2, 

 but was obliged to return at the end of 18 days, 

 owing to lack of food for his dogs. His second 

 fruitless attempt cost him 26 days, in the course 

 of which he was able to explore the whole of 

 the coast of Taimyr Bay. On April 18 he 

 again left the Zaria, and arrived at Goldchik 

 after a march of 40 days, during which he 

 lived on the flesh of bears and reindeer. From 

 Goldchik he proceeded with reindeer to 

 Doudinki, and from there by boat to Yeniseisk. 

 His present object is to establish coaling sta- 

 tions for the Zaria in Dickson Bay and on the 

 islands of New Siberia. 



Professor W. A. Herdman, as Nature 

 learns, has received letters and natural history 

 notes from Mr. Nelson Annan dale and Mr. H. 

 Robinson, who left Liverpool University College 

 a short time ago for a year's exploration in the 

 Siamese Malay States. Some of the observa- 

 tions made and material collected will be de- 

 scribed at the forthcoming meeting of the British 

 Association at Glasgow. Meanwhile, it is in- 

 teresting to read the following notes from the 

 naturalists : ' ' We have obtained what is either 

 a second species of Periophthalmus or a genus 

 closely allied to it, and we have to-day our- 

 selves collected a series of young specimens, 

 which show that in extreme youth the eyes are 

 normally placed on the sides of the head, and 

 only migrate to the top later in life. We also 

 got in water less than a fathom a most interest- 

 ing case of commensalism, in which a small 

 crab, with a very soft back, has the two last 

 pairs of legs specially modified for holding on 



a sea-anemone, which it grasps by the foot. * * * 

 A good many cases of mimicry between dif- 

 ferent orders and families, principally between 

 spiders and ants, homoptera and beetles, were 

 noted — in at least ten cases the mimicked ani- 

 mal being an ant. 



UNIVERSITY AND_ EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 



Mrs. Caroline Stannard Tilton, of New 

 Orleans, has given $50,000 for a Tilton memor- 

 ial library at Tulane University. 



By the will of the late Herbert B. Adams, 

 prqfessor of history in the Johns Hopkins Uni- 

 versity, that University is made the residuary 

 legatee. Amherst College is given $2,000 for 

 the library and the American Historical Asso- 

 ciation is given $5,000. 



We are requested to state that in spite of the 

 damage the building of the College of Physi- 

 cians and Surgeons, Chicago, the medical school 

 of the University of Illinois, suffered recently 

 from fire, the administration of the College has 

 suffered no serious disturbance and the institu- 

 tion will in the autumn be housed and equipped 

 better than ever before. 



Dr. Charles Burton Thwing, professor of 

 physics in Knox College, has been called to the 

 same chair in Syracuse University. 



Professor W. S. McCormack, of University 

 College, Dundee, has been appointed secretary 

 of the endowment for the Scottish universities, 

 established by Mr. Carnegie. 



The Council of University College, London, 

 has appointed Mr. J. D. Cormack, B.Sc, of 

 Glasgow, to the chair of mechanical engineer- 

 ing vacant by the resignation of Professor Hud- 

 son Beare on his appointment as regius pro- 

 fessor at Edinburgh, and Mr. Edgar Walford 

 Marchant, D.Sc, to the lectureship in electro- 

 technics vacated by Mr. Alfred Hay's appoint- 

 ment to a professorship at Coopers Hill. 



Dr. R. T. Hewlett, of the Jenner Institute 

 of Preventive Medicine, has been appointed 

 professor of general pathology and bacteriology 

 at King's College, London. 



Mr. R. C. Porter, now lecturer in engineer- 

 ing at the government school at Cairo, has been 

 appointed lecturer of mechanical engineering 

 at Birmingham University. 



