550 The American Naturalist. [June, 
SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 
The University of Illinois is to open a permanent station on 
the Illinois River for the biological study of the flora and fauna of the 
waters of the state. Havana hasbeen selected as the location and suit- 
able laboratory quarters have been obtained. Work will be begun in 
April and the station will be kept open throughout the year. The 
Illinois State Laboratory of Natural History and the State Fish Com- 
mission will co-operate and the whole will be under the direction of 
Professor S. A. Forbes. Professor Forbes has selected in the vicinity 
of Havana a set of typical situations which will be explored through- 
out the year and probably for several years in succession. The main 
object is the thorough investigation of the entire system of the plant 
and animal life of the waters of that region with principal reference to 
problems of wcology ; above all to the effect of the periodical overflow 
and recession of the waters upon the variety, abundance and interaction 
generally of the various groups of plants and animals represented in 
those waters. 
Some students may have the Leitz’s Mechanical Stage. The follow- 
ing directions copied from the American Edition of Leitz’s catalogue 
of Microscopes and Accessories published by Richards & Co. of New 
York may enable them to apply the apparatus to their stands. “The 
screw on the right must be lost so, that the lever, of the form of an are 
ofa bow, can turn around the axis at which it is fixed on the left. 
Afterward, the stage is to be put on the stage of the microscope so, that 
both angle pieces, opposite to the lever, drives the column of the stand ; 
after putting the lever to its place, the screw gets fastened again. At 
last, the stage, must be fixed to the column, by drawing close the 
other screw, being in the middle part of the lever.” 
: Dr. Edmund Beecher Wilson has been elected Professor of Zoology 
in Columbia College. He was previously adjunct professor of biology. 
Dr. L. Will, well-known for his studies in Hexapod morphology, has 
been called to the chair of Zoology in the University of Rostock. 
Dr. F. Ulrich, Professor of Mineralogy and Geology in the technical 
school at Hannover, died Jan. 25, 1894. 
Dr. C. V. Riley has tendered his resignation as U. S. Entomologist, to 
take effect June 1, 1894. After that date his address will be U.S. 
National Museum, Washington, D. C. 
