ALLEN BACK FROM TRIP TO BRAZILIAN MUSEUMS

After spending the greater part of the University recess in South America, Dr. Glover M. Allen, associate professor in Zoology, has returned to his duties at the University Museum. Traveling through Sao Paulo with the purpose of establishing mor cordial relations with the local museums, Dr. Allen delivered several public lectures at the National Museum of Natural History and Archaeology of the state of Sao Paulo. Later he journeyed to the Instituto Butantan, where he delivered a short address to the staff. Sao Paulo is an agricultural state in which nearly three-fourths of the world's coffee is grown; the climate is also favorable to animal life and because of this fact, several species of poisonous reptiles abound there. With the purpose in view of reducing the large number of fatalities resulting annually from snakebite the Instituto Butantan has a large group of herpetologists engaged in perfecting an anti-venin for snake bites. It was to this staff that Dr. Allen spoke.

Before returning to Cambridge, Dr. Allen made a fourteen-day expedition into the mountains of southern Brazil, where he collected a quantity of specimens. These specimens are now being prepared and classified for a Brazilian group in the University Museum.