November 13, 1885.] 



SCIENCE. 



421 



a different problem from that of their European 

 progenitors. An interest in zoology is with us less 

 diffused than is the case abroad, the climate is less 

 favorable for out-of-door recreation, the gardens 

 are at great distances from the centres of popula- 

 tion, and the cost of securing many of the larger 

 and more interesting animals is great m proportion 

 as the gardens are removed from the chief places 

 of traffic. The zoological garden in this country 

 is not likely ever to be self-supporting. Whether 

 or no the zoological garden should have a plan of 

 organization distinct from that of the botanical 

 garden is a mooted point. It would appear that 

 there is nothing inconsistent with the idea that the 

 plan of the learned society or the university might 

 readily embrace that of the management of a col- 

 lection of hving animals. AVere such an arrange- 

 ment practicable, it would enable the garden to be 

 benefited by the use of the general endowment of 

 such bodies, wliile it would not interfere with the 

 popular uses of the collection. 



Notwithstanding the fact that the whole 

 civilized world is interested in the subject of the 

 transfer of ships across the narrow neck of land 

 which separates the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, 

 by which the long voyage around Cape Horn 

 would be avoided, yet there has been no project 

 proposed or suggested which has met with less 

 favor in the minds of engineers of high standing, 

 at least in this country, than the Panama Canal. 

 The magnitude of the enterprise, the formidable 

 engineering difficulties to be encountered, the un- 

 healthiness of the climate, and the fact that the 

 undertaking is a private one, depending on pri- 

 vate subscriptions, constitute obstacles which, when 

 taken together, seem to render success almost 

 hopeless. The recent call for more money to 

 carry on the work, when the most costly and dif- 

 ficult portions have hardly been begun, and after 

 vast sums have already been expended, must 

 awaken grave apprehensions on the part of those 

 who have already invested their money in the en- 

 terprise, that the project is beyond the financial 

 abfiities of the most powerful syndicates. 



As THE INCOME of the EHzabcth Thompson 

 science fund is already available, the trustees 

 desire to receive applications for appropriations in 

 aid of scientific work. This endowment is not for 

 the benefit of any one department of science, but 

 it is the intention of the trustees to give the pref- 



erence to those investigations, not already other- 

 wise 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. Apphcations for assistance from 

 this fund should be forwarded to the secretaiy 

 of the board of trustees. Dr. C. S. Minot, 25 

 Mount Vernon Street, Boston, Mass., and should be 

 accompanied 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 first grant wiU probably be made early in. 

 January, 1886. The fund was originally given by 

 Mrs. Thompson, as will be remembered, with the 

 expectation that it would be administered by the 

 officers of the International scientific association 

 proposed at the Philadelphia meeting of the Ameri- 

 can association. This proposition was to have 

 been brought up at the Aberdeen meeting of the 

 British association ; but, so far as known, no 

 action was taken. The fund is now in the charge 

 of the able body of trustees already named, 

 {Science, vi. 144), and wiU doubtless prove a great 

 aid to American science if the best investigators 

 ■will ask for appropriations from the income. It is 

 a severe comment upon the physicists of the United 

 States that the iucome of the similar fund estab- 

 lished by Rumf ord for investigations in fight and 

 heat should go begging as it does. 



THE AGA8SIZ MUSEUM AT CAMBRIDGE. 



The day after his twenty-thud buthday, Agassiz 

 wrote from Munich to his brother, ' ' The thing I 

 most desire seems to me, at least for the present, 

 farthest from my reach ; namely, the duection of 

 a great museum." He lived to see the Museiun of 

 comparative zoology, which he founded on another 

 continent, the largest collection, covering the whole 

 field of natural history, ever brought together by 

 the endeavors of a single individual. Reckoning 

 from the inauguration of the first section of the 

 building, to-day completes its quarter centennial, 

 and renders appropriate a succinct account of its 

 inception and growth, largely in the words of his 

 son. Dr. Alexander Agassiz, when addressing, last 

 spring, the friends of the institution at the open- 

 ing of the latest extension of the building. 



The recently published ' Life of Agassiz ' shows us 

 that his passion for acquisition was enormous from 

 his youth. Wherever he went, Ms collections in 

 natural history accumulated to a burdensome de- 

 gree ; and, although he left every thing behind him 



