The foundation stone of an oceanographic museum, instituted by Prince Albert of Monaco, was laid in that city April 25th. The museum is designed, primarily, to receive the large and valuable collections obtained by the prince in the voyages of ocean exploration which he has conducted, and to become a general depository for oceanographic spoils. The principal address was made by the governor-general, who glorified the prince's meritorious scientific career. The German Emperor, who is named a patron of the museum, and the French President were represented on the occasion by deputies. The City Library Association of Springfield, Mass., has been holding, during April, May, and June, an elaborate and instructive exhibit of geographic appliances of special interest to teachers in the elementary schools. The exhibition included a number of sets of wall maps, relief maps and globes, models for use in structural geography, pictures, photographs, etc., of geographical features, aids in teaching, geographical texts, manuals and treatises, books of travel, and an exhibit of geographical work done in the elementary schools of Springfield and vicinity. The association has also published a brief Bibliography of Geographical Instruction, which was prepared by W. S. Monroe, of the State Normal School at Westfield, Mass. Dr. Daniel G. Brinton has presented to the University of Pennsylvania, where he is Professor of American Archæology and Linguistics, his entire collection of books and manuscripts relating to the aboriginal languages of North and South America. The collection represents the work of twenty-five years, and embraces about two thousand titles. Mr. Andrew Carnegie has offered to complete, with a contribution of £50,000, a fund which Mr. Joseph Chamberlain is trying to raise in order to make the scientific school the principal department of the University of Birmingham, England. A noteworthy experiment in bird protection has been made in a boys' school at Coupvray, France, by forming a society of the pupils for that purpose. The president, vice-president, and secretary of the society are selected from among the pupils of the first division, and all the other pupils are members. Meetings are held every Saturday afternoon in March, April, May, June, and July, under the presidency of the teacher, to hear the reports of members and record the nests protected and noxious animals destroyed in a notebook kept for the purpose. In 1898, 570 nests were protected by the school, and more than 400 mice, rats, weasels, and dormice were destroyed. Such societies cost nothing, and are capable of rendering great service. Ernest D. Bell, whose formula for determining animal longevity by the length of the period of maturity was published in a recent Monthly, has sent a later communication to Nature, changing his constant from 10.5 to 10.1, the latter figure giving much better results.