American Association for the Advancement of Science was held on April 17. The annual meeting will be held at Pittsburgh, beginning on June 30.
The portrait of Benjamin Franklin, executed by Gainsborough at the time of the signing of the Treaty of Paris, and lately given to the University of Pennsylvania by the class of 1852, has been hung in the University Library.—A memorial bronze tablet has been placed on the Albany (N. Y.) Academy in memory of Joseph Henry, stating that his experiments in electricity were made in that building while he was acting as professor of mathematics.
The British National Physical Laboratory was formally opened on March 19. Sir William Huggins, president of the Royal Society, presided, and addresses were made by the Prince of Wales, Lord Rayleigh, Lord Kelvin and others.—Professor Emil v. Behring (Marburg) will give the amount of the Nobel prize recently awarded him ($40,000) to the Prussian State for the permanent endowment of the Institute of Experimental Therapeutics founded by him in the University of Marburg. The gift is to be devoted to the prosecution on a large scale of the researches on serum initiated by Professor Behring.—Lord Walsingham has given to the British Museum (Natural History) his collection of butterflies and moths. This collection of microlepidoptera contains over 200,000 specimens, and is probably the largest and most valuable in the world. It includes the Zellar, Hoffman, Christoph and other collections, and contains many type specimens. Lord Walsingham has himself published numerous monographs on the microlepidoptera.—An anonymous gift of $20,000, for the benefit of the Harvard College Observatory, has been received from a friend of the director, Professor Edward C. Pickering.
Mr. Alexander Agassiz and his party have returned to America, from their exploration of the Maldives. The principal work done was the sounding ox the channels between the lagoons and the development of the plateau on which the atolls of the Maldives have been formed.—Dr. D. T. MacDougal has returned from Arizona and Sonora with an extensive collection of giant cacti and other large xerophytic plants, which are being installed in the horticultural houses of the New York Botanical Garden.
