300 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST. [VOL. XXXII. 
afforded within College walls is not suitable for ladies. The Recep- 
tion Committee will use their best endeavors to find accommodation 
in lodgings for members who are accompanied by ladies, and it is 
proposed in due course of time to issue a statement relating to the 
cost of apartments, railway fares, and other information which will 
be useful to visitors.” 
Any zoologist who expects to attend the Congress should address 
a note to the secretaries of the Reception Committee, The Museums, 
Cambridge, accepting the invitation, asking for further information 
in regard to the local arrangements, and stating whether or not he 
expects to be accompanied by ladies. 
Among the recent large gifts which have a scientific interest is one 
of $1,100,000 by Joseph F. Loubat to the library of Columbia Uni- 
versity. The income of this will not be available immediately, as 
the property is subject to a life annuity of $60,000. 
Lafayette College is to rebuild its scientific building, Pardee Hall, 
the destruction of which was noticed some time ago in these pages. 
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has begun the erection 
of a new building, one floor of which will be devoted to the biologi- 
cal laboratories, giving them about three times the space that they 
have in their present cramped quarters. Upon the completion of 
this building, which is promised in August, the general library of 
the Institute will be moved into the room now occupied by the 
biological laboratory. 
Pomona College, Pomona, California, is to have a $25,000 science 
building, the gift of Dr. E. D. Pearsons, of Chicago. 
One good appointment is to be placed to the credit of the new 
U. S. Fish Commissioner, —that of Prof. H. C. Bumpus as scientific 
director of the station at Woods Holl. During the few years past 
this aspect of the work of the Fish Commission has steadily degene- 
rated, until last year it was at the lowest ebb. Professor Bumpus 
brings to the position energy and executive and scientific ability, 
while the fact that since 1888 he has spent nearly every summer at 
Woods Holl has given him a familiarity with the locality and the 
capacities of the-station which insures good work. If the Commis- 
sioner exercises equally good judgment in his other appointments, 
he will go far toward disarming criticism. 
