876 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XI. No. 283. 



different classes of buildings and of conserva- 

 tion were, in the lecturer's opinion, required. 

 For valuable objects of which no possible dete- 

 rioration must be permitted, and which must 

 be safeguarded from risks of theft, such build- 

 ings as our present museums were admirable. 

 But for rougher objects and things of small in- 

 dividual value a much less costly and elaborate 

 system was needed. A fine site in a city, a 

 noble building, costly glass cases were quite in- 

 appropriate to the greater part of the material 

 which was to be kept and studied. The system 

 to which the necessities pointed was that of 

 long galleries, far apart, against which much 

 larger annexes could be attached at any point. 

 This might be called the gridiron pattern, and 

 the building must, of course, be placed outside 

 of Loudon rents. Some said : "Let us leave 

 everything to local care ; let local museums 

 keep everything as found. ' ' They might as well 

 leave things safely buried instead. The local mu- 

 seum had its own uses for elementary instruction, 

 but no student could possibly race over the whole 

 world to find the examples of any subject he 

 needed. Professor Petrie suggested that a square 

 mile of ground should be obtained somewhere 

 within an hour's train from London at a com- 

 paratively cheap rate. It would, in a genera- 

 tion or so, be to Greater London what South 

 Kensington was to the Lesser London 50 years 

 ago. This village that would grow up around it 

 might very appropriately be called, after the 

 founder of the British Museum, the village of 

 Sloane. The Sloane Galleries would soon out- 

 grow any confusion with the little collection of 

 Sir John Sloane in Lincoln'sinn-fields. The 

 lecturer worked out in considerable detail the 

 form of the galleries, the cost, the arrange- 

 ments for the staff, and the fittings, and said 

 that at first the Sloane would be the clearing 

 ground for freeing the existing museums from 

 everything of small value and attractiveness. 

 That the British Museum should thus devolve 

 the care of its contents of lesser value was a 

 necessity that was to be met in the library by 

 powers of very free-handed disposal to locate 

 centers, or even destruction. Such powers in 

 other departments were therefore to be expected 

 sooner or later. As yet nothing could legally 

 leave the museum, but useless lumber could be 



interred in the grounds. The normal average 

 increase of the vote for the British Museum 

 was £10,000 every four years of its history. 

 If the proposed national repository enabled the 

 British Museum to expand by weeding out, in- 

 stead of by fresh building, the former would be 

 paid for to all time. All that was absolutely 

 required could be provided on the present sys- 

 tem of expenditure if the British Museum were 

 to be weeded during eight years of its more 

 cumbrous and less valuable contents sufficiently 

 to take in its new acquisitions. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 



De. J. WiLLAED GiBBS, professor of mathe- 

 matical physics in Yale University, has been 

 elected a corresponding member of the Paris 

 Academy of Sciences. 



The gold medal of the Linnean Society of 

 London has been awarded to Professor Alfred 

 Newton, F.R.S., in recognition of his important 

 contributions to zoological science. The medal 

 is awarded annually, alternately to a zoologist 

 and to a botanist. 



On May 8th the Prince of Wales, president 

 of the Society of Arts, presented the Albert 

 medal to William Crookes, F.E.S., "for his ex- 

 tensive and laborious researches in chemistry 

 and in physics ; researches which have, in many 

 instances, developed into useful practical appli- 

 cations in the arts and manufactures." 



The Boston Society of Natural History has 

 awarded the first Walker prize of $100 to Dr. 

 Eudolph Ruedemann, assistant N. Y. State 

 paleontologist, the subject of whose essay is the 

 ' Hudson River formation of the vicinity of 

 Albany, N. Y. , and its taxonomic equivalents. ' 

 The paper will be published as a bulletin of , 

 the N. Y. State Museum. 



At the meeting of the Paris Academic de 

 Medecine on May 1st, Professors Behring (of 

 Marburg), Golgi (of Pavia), Tilanus (of Amster- 

 dam), and Pawloff (of St. Petersburg), were 

 elected Foreign Associates. 



Professors W. Pfeffer of Leipzig, von 

 Richthofen of Berlin, and S. Schwendener also 

 of Berlin, have been elected members of the 

 Academy of Sciences of Christiania. 



The following candidates have been selected 



