960 Scientific News. [September, 
Dry Preparations.—Finally, if vessels injected with the starch 
mass are dissected free, soaked a day or two in Wickersheimer's 
preservative, and then dried, they retain their form, and, to a great 
degree, their flexibility—/rom the New York Medical Journal, 
June 7, 1884. 
——:0:—— 
SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 
— The Paris Museum of Natural History.—We are accustomed 
to think that they do things better in France, yet it appears that 
the troubles which beset American museums are not unknown 
there. The total sum annually at the disposal of the Museum 
d'Histoire Naturelle is but 918,942 francs, or about $180,000. Out 
of this nineteen professors, fifty-six assistants and a great number 
of gardeners, draughtsmen, librarians, clerks, secretaries, curators, 
laboratory helps, etc., as well as the entire cost of maintaining the 
Jardin des Plantes, with its conservatories and menagerie, have to 
be paid. “Thus, according to M. Freney’s report there are no 
laboratories for the chairs of botany, geology, mineralogy or com- 
parative pathology ; only 40,000 francs are available for the pur- 
‘chase of animals ; the new zodlogical galleries are unfurnished; there 
is no botanical gallery, though there is a considerable botanical col- 
lection; there are no available funds for the utilization of the groun 
that has been acquired in the Bois de Vincennes for the purpos® 
of culture; there is no marine zodlogical station attached specially 
to the museum; the galleries of palzontology and anatomy? 
improvements ; an additional assistant is required to classify the 
insects and crustacea, and another for the annelids, mollusks an 
zoophytes ; and the anthropological gallery and library need er 
largement. The library has 100,000 volumes, while the p 
which contains it was built to receive 30,000. Moreover, some 
the aides-naturalistes ought to have superior positions opened t? 
them, for, as occurs elsewhere, men desert the pursuit of natural 
story because of the insufficient remuneration it affords. 
— A cable despatch announces the death in Vienna, of Ferdi 
nand Von Hochstetter, the noted German traveler and geolog: 
Herr Hochstetter was born at Esslingen, April 30, 1829. He 
; . f 
er via to 
position of geologist, to a scientific commission - i 
: hemia, On his return he was made professor of geo pa” 
the Vienna University, and in 1856 he accepted an o 
made 
. d iti we 
tion around the world. On his return from this expedition seni 
1 
