NEWS. 
A RECENT fire in Geneva destroyed the herbarium of Professor 
Chodat, of the university. 
A French Association des Anatomistes has recently been formed, 
holding its first meeting in Paris, January 5 and 6. The secretary is 
Professor A. Nicholas, of Nancy. 
The United States Fish Commission will have $19,200 for scien- 
tific investigation during the present year. 
The eighth session of the International Geological Congress will 
be held in Paris, August 16-28, 1900, Circulars regarding the pro- 
posed excursions will be issued this year. 
The Gray herbarium, of Harvard University, has recently pur- 
chased the collection of Composite of the late Dr. F. W. Klatt, 
of Hamburg. It contains about 11,000 specimens, and will probably 
add 60 genera and 1500 species to the Gray herbarium. The Gray 
herbarium previously contained about 35,000 sheets of composites. 
The following state legislation in 1898 is of interest to naturalists. 
New Jersey provides for a state entomologist ; Louisiana has passed 
a bill providing for the establishment of a biological station in the 
Gulf of Mexico, to codperate with the United States Fish Commission 
for the investigation of problems affecting the fisheries of the state ; 
New York forbids the killing at any time of wild moose, elk, caribou, 
and antelope; Ohio has repealed the law relative to the trapping or 
killing of muskrats, mink, and otter. 
The Saxon government is to erect a new museum building at 
Dresden, and the director of the museum, Dr. A. B. Meyer, with the 
architect, Professor Wallot, will visit the United States this autumn — 
for the purpose of studying the museum buildings of this country. 
For some years there has been a growing feeling in England that 
the northern coal fields will give out, and that endeavors should be 
made to find coal in other parts of the island. To ascertain whether | 
other workable beds occurred in other regions, a boring has been 
made at Brabourne, in Kent, which has now reached a depth of 2000 
feet, and is now in lower carboniferous rocks. 
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