of vertebrates there, and no better nor more scientific installations of mammals are to be seen in any museum. The arrangement and labeling both from scientific and artistic standpoints are unique.
The especial purpose of the president and trustees of the American Museum of Natural History in the selection and appointment of Dr. Lucas as director is the advancement of the educational arrangement and exhibition of the vast collections which the museum has been acquiring from various parts of the world, especially during the past decade. In this field Dr. Lucas is recognized as the leading expert in this country. The trustees realize that the American Museum is very strong and well arranged in certain departments, while others lack sequence, and that either geographic, systematic or evolutionary sequence is necessary in order to give the collections their full educational value and effect.
SCIENTIFIC ITEMS
We regret to record the deaths of Dr. Francis A. March, professor emeritus of comparative philology and English literature at Lafayette College, of Dr. Thomas Dwight, professor of anatomy at Harvard University, and of Professor Franklin H. King, of Madison, Wis., known for his publications on agriculture.
Dr. E. A. Schäfer, professor of physiology at Edinburgh, has been elected president of the British Association, for the meeting to be held next year at Dundee, beginning on September 4. The meeting of 1913 will be held at Birmingham.
The annual Herter lectures will be delivered at the Johns Hopkins University on October 4, 5 and 6, by Professor Dr. Albrecht Kossel, of the University of Heidelberg, who was awarded the Nobel prize last year for his discoveries in medical chemistry.
Next year the American Geographical Society celebrates its jubilee, and in connection with this event a transcontinental excursion for the purpose of geographical study is planned, under the leadership of Professor W. M. Davis. The start from New York, by special train, will take place some time in August, and the excursion will conclude in October, its duration being six or seven weeks.
The South Australian Cabinet has decided to contribute £5,000 towards the cost of the Mawson Antarctic Expedition.
