356 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST.  [VOL. XXXIII. 
limited to the ornithological interest of the extreme west, more 
especially California, and will serve as the organ of the Cooper 
Ornithological Club. 
Many naturalists will probably be interested to learn that the 
house of E. Merck, of Darmstadt, have begun the publication of a 
. new magazine, Merck’s Digest, which will give accounts of the various 
chemicals manufactured by the firm, with reports upon their physio- 
logical action. As we understand, the magazine will be supplied 
free to all chemists and physiologists applying for it. 
A successor to E. Ray Lankester as Linacre professor of Com- 
parative Anatomy in the University of Oxford will be elected this 
spring. 
The Royal Microscopical Society has elected Mr. E. M. Nelson to 
the presidency. 
The Russian Geographical Society has established a seismological 
observatory in Irkutsk, Siberia. 
A natural history museum was opened at King Williams Town, 
Cape Colony, October 5. 
Applications for the use of the American women’s table at the 
Naples Zoological Station should be sent to Dr. Ida H. Hyde, 
1 Berkeley Street, Cambridge, Mass. Dr. Hyde will give information 
as to cost of living, etc., to any who may wish it. Two students can 
occupy the table at the same time — a fact which in some cases 
would make the study in Naples more agreeable. 
The Biological Laboratory of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and 
Sciences, located at Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island, will be open 
for its tenth season during July and August, 1899. The regular class 
work occupies six weeks from July 5. Courses are offered in High 
School Zoology by Dr. C. B. Davenport, of Harvard University, who 
is also the Director of the Laboratory. In Comparative Anatomy, 
by Professor H. S. Pratt, of Haverford College; in Invertebrate 
Embryology, by Professor C. P. Sigerfoos, of the University of Min- 
nesota; in Botany, especially of Cryptogams, by Dr. D. S. Johnson, 
of Johns Hopkins University, assisted by Professor F..O. Grover, of 
Oberlin College ; in Bacteriology, by Mr. N. F. Davis, of Bucknell 
University ; in Microscopic Methods, by Mrs. Gertrude Crotty Daven- 
port, formerly instructor at Kansas University. Opportunities are 
afforded for Original Investigations, especially in the Variation of 
