1879. ] Scientific News. 471 
material, Edward D. Cope; chief of the department of archæ- 
ology and ethnology, Edwin A. Barber ; chief of the department 
of national pres furniture, costumes and traits, George 
ewitt ; chief o e department of model homes, William 
S ‘Schofield ; chief ei the department of agriculture, Willis P. 
Hazard ; chief of the department of machinery, apparatus and 
manufactures, E. Gybbon Spilsbury ; chief of the department of 
industrial training, Rudolphus Bingham; chief of the depart- 
ment of schools, school-systems and. publications, Edward Ship- 
pen; chief of the department of fine arts, George W. Pettit. 
The prospectus for 1879 contains a series of announcements 
i : n 
from each of the chiefs of departments. Those of Profs. Frazer 
and Cope, and of Mr. Barber, present plans for the classification 
of their respective museums, which indicate a determination to 
do their respective charges ample justice. ey commence, 
under the favorable conditions of unusually fine collections 
already in hand, and it will only depend on the public spirited 
citizens of Philadelphia whether she has a museum appropriate to 
er population and importance or not. The advantage of having 
her museums under one roof is almost unique, and should recom- 
mend the new organization to immediate suppor 
— The district of Shantong, in China, contains diamond de 
a. The following singular artifice (we learn from Annales 
Gedustieties | is resorted to by to the Chinese to obtain them. Men 
wearing large and thick boots made of straw walk in the sand of 
diamantiferous valleys and watercourses. The diamonds, gener- 
ally rugose an angular in form, penetrate into the straw, and 
remain fixed there. ` Afterwards the boots are collected ex masse 
and incinerated, and the precious stones are found among the 
ashes.—Engli ish Mechanic. 
— We have received the announcement for 1870, of the Appala- 
chian Mountain Club, containing the Constitution and By-laws, 
list of officers for 1879, and the list of members. The president 
for this year is Prof. W. H. Niles, of Cambridge, Mass. — 
_ — The report on the condition ~~ progress of the Davenport 
Academy of Natural Sciences, shows that this society is one of 
the most active in the West, and that this is due largely to two 
or three individuals, sustained by an enlightened and progressive 
constituenc 
mber of the citizens of Atlanta have organized a Scien- 
tific Association, with the following list of officers, for the purpose 
of having lectures on scientific subjects delivered weekly free to the 
public, and to collect a library of scientific works, and to. rovide a 
museum of specimens of minerals, rocks, ores, w > Pane 
