718 The American Naturalist. [August, 
position in the Museum of Natural History of Paris. He is replaced 
by a retired officer of artillery, whose fitness for the place remains to 
be demonstrated. M. Bocourt, besides his special zoological knowledge, 
is an admirable artist, and his plates of reptiles are the most beautiful 
and accurate ever published. His retirement is greatly to be regretted, 
and the suspension of his work before completion will be a discredit to 
France. It is to be hoped that this action will be reconsidered, or if 
not, that provision will be made for the completion of his great work. 
Biology at the Leland Stanford Junior University.— 
Biology had no prejudices to conquer at Leland Stanford Junior Uni- i 
versity. The President has faith in the Biological Sciences and sym- 
pathy with the laboratory methods in their study, while of the students 
who at the beginning applied for work in the University a fair pro- 
portion looked to these sciences for a part of their training. So, from 
the start, departments in biological lines were established, laboratories 
arranged for, and students have come forward to fill them. , 
Departments were established by the appointment of Dr. Douglas ; 
H. Campbell to the chair of botany, of Dr. Charles H. Gilbert to the 
chair of zoology, Prof. John H. Comstock to that of entomology, and 
of Dr. Oliver P, Jenkins to that of physiology and histology. To each of : | 
these gentlemen was left the direction and equipment of the department 
to which he was called. The appointments came at a time when it : 
was impossible to predict the attendance in general for the present 
year, or what would be the number of students to be accommodated in 
each department. The pleasure of ordering a lot of new apparatus — 
was spiced by the attempt to plan it for an unknown and an unknow- 
able class. To attempt, for example, to order such a number of micro- 
Scopes as would neither, as unused, stare one in the face for a yearand 
reproach him for his extravagance, nor leave him to increase his work 
with relays of students on a short number, was a problem which- 
demanded careful consideration. Most concluded to take their chances 
on the first horn of the dilemma to find themselves later hung up on 
the second. Thus it has turned out that some of the first orders have 
had to be supplemented or even duplicated. 
The two buildings assigned to these departments were not originally 
intended for laboratories and are to be soemployed only until the per- 
manent biological laboratories shall be built, which exist in the plans 
for the near future. At present the departments of botany and phys- 
iology share one of the two buildings on the west side of the quadran- 
. gle. Itis a stone building, well lighted, very pleasant, and with the — 
