February 19, 1886.] 



SCIENCE. 



163 



est : 4i Good large reliefs of limited areas, in which 

 the two scales are as nearly as possible the same, 

 are, in my opinion, of great service in geographi- 

 cal teaching : but relief -maps of large areas, con- 

 structed and colored as I have seen some of those 

 much advertised in this country [England] by un- 

 skilled mechanics, in which the scale of altitude 

 is indefinitely magnified, are exceedingly mis- 

 cine vous." 



— The valuable collections of mesozoic and 

 czenozoic invertebrate paleontology, in the pos- 

 session of the national museum, have been ar- 

 ranged for reference and study. They consist of 

 the material obtained by all of the earlier explora- 

 tions of the west, and the various geological sur- 

 veys, as well as the numerous contributions to the 

 Smithsonian institution. Heretofore these collec- 

 tions have been practically inaccessible, owing to 

 their deranged condition. Over fifteen hundred 

 figured types are included in this material ; and a 

 preliminary catalogue has already been issued. 



— Bulletin 31 of the national museum, Mono- 

 graph of the Syrphidae, by Dr. Williston of New 

 Haven, will shortly be issued. 



— The recent purchase of new quarters for the 

 Cosmos club of Washington has had a marked 

 effect on the number of applicants for membership. 

 The quota of members composing the club (250) 

 will be speedily filled. 



— Of the three colleges — Columbia, Harvard, 

 and University of Pennsylvania — that received 

 the benefit of the Tyndall fund, Columbia has 

 been the first to act. Her trustees have recently 

 drawn up a series of regulations in regard to the 

 John Tyndall fellowship. The fellow, who is to 

 be appointed on the recommendation of the presi- 

 dent and professors in the scientific department, 

 must pursue a course of study and research in ex- 

 perimental physics for the term of one year, and 

 he may be re-appointed. The first incumbent of 

 the fellowship is Michael Pupin, who graduated 

 at Columbia in 1883 with honors, and has since his 

 graduation been studying mathematics and physics 

 at Cambridge, England. 



— The fish commission will publish a census of 

 the fisheries of the great lakes ; and a corps of 

 clerks is now busily engaged in preparing the 

 tabulated statements of the results 'of the investi- 

 gations made last year. The commission is also 

 trying to institute a more systematic method of 

 recording the statistics of the sea-fisheries, and, in 

 co-operation with the treasury department, has 

 issued circulars to collectors of customs at various 

 ports, requesting them to obtain from the masters 



of fishing-vessels facts and figures concerning the 

 sea-fisheries in which they are engaged. 



— Mr. Charles A. Ashburner, geologist in charge 

 of the Pennsylvania survey, has been invited to 

 deliver a lecture on the geology and mining of 

 petroleum and natural gas before the engineering 

 society at Columbia School of mines, Friday, Feb. 

 26. The lecture will be illustrated by maps, 

 charts, and lantern-slides, and will embody the 

 results of the state survey up to date. 



— The U. S. hydrographic office issues a weekly 

 supplement to the monthly pilot chart of the 

 North Atlantic ocean, which will be of special 

 value to coasters. It contains accounts of every 

 obstruction and danger along the coast, and other 

 matters of interest to seamen, relating to naviga- 

 tion, such as changes in lights or buoys. These 

 bulletins are posted in all the seaport cities ; and 

 the maritime community is invited to send any 

 information of value to the central office at Wash- 

 ington, or to any of the branch offices at Boston, 

 New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, New Orleans, 

 and San Francisco. The object of the hydro- 

 graphic office is to place within reach of sailors, at 

 no expense to them, such information as cannot 

 be collected profitably by an individual, but which 

 the government can readily gather, at no addi- 

 tional cost, through agencies already established. 



— The preparation and preservation of anatomi- 

 cal specimens have always been more or less un- 

 satisfactory in museum collections. The U. S. 

 army and medical museum has recently, under 

 the supervision of Dr. J. S. Billings, instituted a 

 number of important improvements in these re- 

 spects. Frozen sections, made of bodies with the 

 organs in natural relation — a method practised 

 in Europe for a number of years — are placed in 

 special dishes or bowls, resembling ordinary wash- 

 bowls with the top ground off, attached to a colored 

 background of plaster-of-Paris. A glass cover is 

 then cemented over the bowl, and through a 

 small aperture the space is filled quite full with the 

 preservative fluid. The colors of the tissues are 

 preserved nearly as in life, by special means, and 

 the whole preparation gives a naturalness not pos- 

 sible of attainment by any other method. An- 

 other feature, which has been devised at the 

 museum, is a series of sections of the typical crania 

 of the vertebrated animals. The object of this 

 collection is to show the relationship of the bones 

 which enter into the formation of the skull. 

 These sections are made in a longitudinal-vertical 

 direction, and the corresponding bones are painted 

 the same color. Thus, in the series presented, the 

 student can determine at a glance the relative 

 state of development of any particular bone, from 



