physical science. The building here shown will occupy about one third of the space, the remainder of which will be left for future extension. When complete the exhibition space will consist of three large roof-lighted halls, 200 by 100 feet, with surrounding galleries on the first and second floors lighted from the sides and from a large central well. It is intended to exhibit the larger and heavier objects, such as locomotives and engines, on the ground floor of the new building.
The museum has a great collection of objects illustrating the history of discovery and invention and the principles of experimental and mechanical science. These include: The earliest steam engines constructed by James Watt for industrial purposes, Stephenson's "Rocket" locomotive, Symington's steam engine, which was the first to propel a boat, and the engine of the "Comet" steamboat. Arkwright's original spinning machinery, Wheatstone's electric telegraph apparatus and other machines and instruments of vast importance contributed by Great Britain to civilization.
Science collections were first arranged in the South Kensington Museum in 1857, but of the early mechanical objects and models the most important are those which were brought together in the Patent Office Museum and handed over to the Department of Science and Arts in 1883. The collection of scientific instruments and apparatus took origin when certain of the objects included in the loan collection of 1876 were deposited in the museum. This collection already includes many illustrations of scientific investigation and inquiry that are of historic interest.
SCIENTIFIC ITEMS
We record with regret the death of Mrs. Matilda Coxe Stevenson, for the last twenty-five years ethnologist in the Bureau of American Ethnology; of Lieut.-Col. Charles E. Woodruff, U. S. A., retired, known for his publications on the effects of sunlight and other subjects; of Dr. Hugo Müller, F.R.S., past-president of the British Chemical Society, and of Sir A. H. Church, F.R.S., formerly professor of chemistry in the Royal Academy of Arts, London.
Amherst College at its recent commencement conferred its doctorate of laws on Professor Benjamin K. Emerson, class of 1865, for forty-five years teacher of geology in Amherst College. Wesleyan University has conferred the same degree on William North Rice, who was graduated from the institution fifty years ago.
Surgeon-General Rupert Blue, of the Public Health Service, was elected president of the American Medical Association at the recent San Francisco meeting.—Dr. Viktor von Lang, emeritus profesor of physics at Vienna, has been elected president of the Vienna Academy of Sciences.—Lord Fisher, former first sea lord of the British admiralty, has been appointed chairman of an "inventions board," which will assist the admiralty in coordinating and encouraging naval science.
