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— Charles Scribner’s Sons announce an important 
book, by Professor Arnold Guyot, entitled ‘‘ Crea- 
tion; or, The biblical cosmogony in the light of 
modern science.”’ 
— The Pilot chart of the North Atlantic Ocean for 
February shows a smaller number of wrecks than 
were given on that of last month. The thick scatter- 
ing of wrecks along our coast from Cape Hatteras 
to New York, and on the January chart farther 
north, as compared with those charted on the Euro- 
pean coast, attracts immediate attention, but may be 
due to the more complete information received by the 
hydrographic office from vessels entering American 
ports, rather than to greater carelessness or reckless- 
ness on the part of American navigators. 
— Dr. H. Laspeyres has been appointed professor 
of mineralogy in the university at Kiel, and Dr. F. 
Kurtz of Berlin, professor of botany at the univer- 
sity at Cordoba in the Argentine Republic. 
— Over a million visitors passed the turnstile of 
the South Kensington museum during 1885; and since 
the opening of the museum in June, 1857, the num- 
ber of visitors is stated to have been 22,675,912. 
— The course of ‘ practical lessons’ in anthropology, 
of the Parker memorial science class, began Jan. 6, 
and will continue to March 30. Among the subjects 
of the essays to be discussed we find ‘Infant educa- 
tion,’ ‘ Language and its evolution,’ ‘ Heredity,’ and 
‘ Allopathy vs. homoeopathy.’ 
— The annual watch-trials undertaken at the Yale 
college observatory for the encouragement of horology 
are now in progress, and watches or marine chronome- 
ters whose record is to appear in this year’s observa- 
tory report will be received not later than April 15. 
The report is published the latter part of June. Full 
particulars of the conditions of the watch-trials will 
be furnished upon application to the secretary of the 
observatory. 
— Dr. Benjamin Sharp has been appointed pro- 
fessor of lower invertebrata by the council of the 
Academy of natural sciences of Philadelphia. Dr. 
Sharp is a graduate of the University of Pennsylva- 
nia, from which he received the degrees of Doctor of 
medicine and Doctor of philosophy in 1881. He 
afterwards studied under Leuckart in Leipzig, and 
under Semper in the University of Wurzburg. He 
took his degree from the latter after presenting a 
thesis in German on the anatomy of Ancylus. A 
translation of this memoir has been published in the 
proceedings of the academy, and is considered an 
important addition to our knowledge of the group 
of animals described. Dr. Sharp was granted the 
privilege of studying at the Bavarian table in the 
Zodlogical station at Naples, an honor rarely granted 
a foreigner. Dr. Sharp proposes delivering lectures, 
during the coming spring, on the lower forms of life. 
The course will, in some degree, supply the lack of 
biological instruction in Philadelphia, which has re- 
cently been the subject of public comment. 
—Barnum’s ‘white elephant’ arrived at the Zoo- 
logical gardens on Jan. 17, since which time it has at- 
tracted much attention. To call the elephant ‘ white’ 
SCIENCE. 
is certainly to use that term in a very broad sense. 
The general color of the animal, which is a male 
about seven feet high, is a light gray, perhaps a shade 
lighter than is usual. The only parts which approach 
white are the tips of the ears, the breast, a space in 
front of and behind the eyes, the middle of the fore- 
head, and a space under the ears. The color in these 
regions is a sort of dull fleshy tint, although the 
blotch on the forehead has a brownish tinge. The 
blotches are very irregularly margined, and plenti- 
fully sprinkled with small spots of the normal gray 
of the body. A much more remarkable feature than 
these slight irregularities of color is the length of 
the tail: the tuft at its extremity all but touches the 
ground. ‘The elephant appears to be in excellent 
condition, and has fine pointed tusks. 
— Upon the resignation of Professor (now Sir) 
‘Richard Owen from the superintendency of the Brit- 
ish museum, the trustees of that institution have 
unanimously chosen Professor William H. Flower, 
LL.D., F.R.S., F.Z.S., etc., to be his successor. In 
accepting this position, Professor Flower will proba- 
bly sever his connection with the Museum of the 
Royal college of surgeons, of which he has been for a 
number of years the conservator. In the latter posi- 
tion he also succeeded Professor Owen. 
The election of Professor Flower to the prominent 
and responsible post of superintendent must be re- 
garded as a very happy occurrence. His numerous 
contributions to mammalogy (especially to the knowl- 
edge of the cetacea) and to other branches of 
zoology entitle him to the high rank which he holds 
in England and throughout the scientific world. His 
administrative ability is amply displayed in the per- 
fection to which he has brought the arrangement of 
the collections of the Royal college of surgeons. 
The keepers of the several departments of the 
Natural-history museum who are next in rank to the 
superintendent are as follows: keeper of zoology, 
Dr. Albert Ginther; assistant, Arthur G. Butler; 
keeper of geology, Dr. H. Woodward; assistant, R. 
Etheridge; keeper of mineralogy, L. Fletcher; keeper 
of botany, W. Carruthers. 
Professor Flower is at present engaged in the prepa- 
ration of a series of lectures on anthropology, to be 
delivered in the coming spring; in the publication of 
a complete catalogue of the collection of the College 
of surgeons; and of numerous scientific papers of 
importance, notably, one upon the Delphinidae. 
— The sixth fasciculus of Dr. Fisher’s Manuel de 
conchyliologie has appeared, carrying the work from 
Siphonaria, through the opisthobranchs, mnucleo- 
branchs, and to the beginning of the prosobranchs, 
including the Toxoglossa and Rhachiglossa as far as 
the Volutidae. The character of the work is fully 
maintained, or, if any thing, becomes more satisfac- 
tory as the better-studied groups are taken up, About | 
three-fifths of the work has now appeared. ; 
— Papilio, a journal devoted solely to Lepidoptera, 
and published for three years as the organ of the 
New-York entomological club, under the superin- 
tendence of Mr. Henry Edwards, is to be transferred 
to Philadelphia, and edited by Eugene M. Aaron. 
[Vo1. IIL, No. 54, 
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