500 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIV. No. 352. 



through donations from individuals, 317 donors 

 having presented some 6,000 specimens. This 

 and the attendance speak well for the popu- 

 larity of the Museum. The government did, 

 however, provide $67,500 for an addition to 

 the Museum building which was already a much 

 finer structure than the National Museum of 

 the United States. The most important acces- 

 sions were an oar-fish, Begalecus gesne, the third 

 of the species known, and an oil-fish, or ' palu,' 

 Buvettus pretiosus ; the remainder of the im- 

 portant additions were ethnological. In the 

 exhibition series special attention seems to be 

 given to groups of birds, and fifteen new ' nest 

 groups ' were added, besides an additional ex- 

 ample of the interesting nest of the bower 

 bird, Chlamydodera maculata ; this was elabo- 

 rately decorated at both ends with bones of mam- 

 mals and birds, shells, pebbles, bits , of glass 

 and other objects. It is announced that the 

 manuscript and illustrations for the ' Catalog 

 of the Nests and Eggs of Birds found breeding 

 in Australia ' is well advanced. The work 

 will comprise some three hundred pages of 

 text, about one hundred text figures, thirty 

 plates of eggs and forty of nests, and its publi- 

 cation will extend over a period of three years. 



The Manchester Museum, Owens College, in 

 its Reports for the year 1900-1901 also makes 

 a good showing for a small expenditure. The 

 principal increase in the collections has been in 

 lepidoptera, plants and mollusks, among the 

 last being an example of the very rare Pleu- 

 rotomaria adansoniana. A specialty of this 

 Museum appears to be the preparation of ex- 

 hibits of an educational value, and among them 

 is a series of moths selected to represent the 

 families given in the Cambridge Natural 

 History, dissections of Mollusca to illustrate 

 the system of classification based on the gills, 

 and a series of skulls to illustrate dental 

 anatomy and arranged and labeled for the ad- 

 vantage of students. 



A series of excellent lectures, addresses and 

 demonstrations was, as usual, given during the 

 year by members of the Museum staff and, as 

 in the past, one is a little surprised at the small 

 attendance on some of these in a city of half a 

 million inhabitants. For example, an address 

 by Boyd Dawkins on 'Our Neolithic Ancestors' 



drew an audience of only ninety -five. The Sun- 

 day lectures, however, were better attended, 

 the most popular being ' The Arrival of Man.' 

 An attractive series is announced for the com- 

 ing fall and winter. 



F. A. L. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 

 The fourth Glasgow meeting of the British 

 Association opened its sessions on September 

 11. The address of the president. Professor A, 

 W. Eiicker, printed in the last issue of Science 

 from a copy sent in advance of its delivery, 

 was given at the inaugural meeting in the 

 evening. Professor Riicker was introduced by 

 the retiring president. Sir William Turner, and 

 the usual vote of thanks was proposed by the 

 Lord Provost of Glasgow and seconded by Lord 

 Kelvin. The general committee held its first 

 meeting on the 11th, when on the proposal of 

 Sir Michael Foster, a cablegram with expressions 

 of sympathy was sent to President McKinley. 

 At the second meeting of the general committee 

 Professor James Dewar was elected president 

 for next year's meeting at Belfast, and the date 

 of the opening of the meeting was set for 

 Wednesday, September 10. It was decided to 

 hold the meeting of 1903 in Southport, where 

 the Association met twenty years previously. 

 Sir W. Roberts-Austen and Dr. D. H. Scott 

 were reappointed as general secretaries, Mr. G. 

 Griffith as assistant general secretary and Pro- 

 fessor Carey Foster as general treasurer. The 

 following were appointed vice-presidents for the 

 Belfast meeting : The Marquis of Duflferin, the 

 Marquis of Londonderry, the Earl of Shaftes- 

 bury, Sir F. Macnaghten, and the Earl of Rosse, 

 Lord Mayor of Belfast, the president of Queen's 

 College and Professor Ray Lankester. 



The University of Adelaide, Australia, will 

 be represented at the Yale bi-centennial by Dr. 

 Edward C. Stirling, professor of surgery. 



Mr. F. J. V. Skiff, director of the Field 

 Columbian Museum, has been appointed director 

 of exhibits for the St. Louis Exposition. Mr. 

 Skiff was deputy director-general of the Colum- 

 bian Exposition, and was director in chief of 

 the United States Commission to the Paris Ex- 

 position. 



