l o to Scientific News. [December, 
SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 
— Henry P. Bowditch, Francis A. Walker, William Minot, Jr, 
and Charles S. Minot, have signed a declaration of trust for the 
Elizabeth Thompson Science Fund. Mrs. Thompson has pre 
sented $25,000 in trust to these gentlemen “to be the means of 
ennobling and promoting investigation and the study of science for 
the sake of science and the benefit of mankind.” This endow- 
ment is not for the benefit of any one department of science, but 
it is the intention of the trustees to give the preference to those 
investigations, xot already otherwise, provided for, which have for 
their object the advancement of human knowledge, or the benefit 
of mankind in general, rather than to researches. directed to the 
solution of questions of merely local importance. 
Applications for assistance from this fund should be accom- 
panied by a full statement of the nature of the investigation, of 
the conditions under which it is to be prosecuted, and of the 
manner in which the appropriation asked for is to be expended. 
The applications should be forwarded to the secretary of the 
Board of Trustees, Dr. C. S. Minot, 25 Mt. Vernon street, Boston, 
Mass., U. S, A. 
The first grant will be made early in January, 1886. 
— Dr. William Benjamin Carpenter, LL.D., F.R.S., an eminent 
English physiologist, died in London, Nov. r1. He published an 
important work entitled, Principles of General and Comparative 
Physiology. His reputation was widely extended by an excellent 
work called, Principles of Human Physiology. For many years 
he edited the British and Foreign Medico- Chirurgical Review. 
He will also be remembered for his work on the physics of the 
ocean, on Foraminifera and crinoids, as well as for his treatise on 
the microscope. Dr. Carpenter died from the effects of terrible 
burns caused by the upsetting of a lamp while he was taking a 
vapor bath for rheumatism. 
— A telegram from Memphis says that “millions of squirrels 
are emigrating from the Mississippi side over to the Arkansas 
ore at a point commencing about five miles below Memphis 
and extending down for twenty miles, They are swimming the 
Mississippi river and evidently making for more elevated grounds 
in Ar - Thousands are being killed by farmers, who, by 
reason of their great numbers, use sticks instead of guns. A 
_ Similar emigration of squirrels occurred in 1872.” 
— We willingly correct an error into which we fell in our 
‘number. Besides the Comision Cientifica of Mexico, there 
a Comision Geographico-Exploradora, of which the director is 
ñor Augustin Diaz. Professor Ferrari-Perez is the chief of the 
de Historia Natural of the latter. This gentleman is at 
the United States engaged in identifying the natural 
