May II, 1911] 



NATURE 



341 



FOREST FIRES. 



Incendies en Foret. By A. Jacquot. Translated bj' 

 C. E. C. Fischer. Pp. xv+278. (Calcutta: 

 Superintendent Government Printing, India, 1910.) 

 Price 14 annas, or is. 3d. 



THE title of this book, " Incendies en Foret," is 

 somewhat misleading, as it is in the main a 

 general treatise on the valuation of forest property, 

 and forest fires are only partially treated, in so far 

 as their occurrence necessitates a correct mode of 

 appraisement of the damages caused by them. 



The first chapter deals with French law in relation 

 to the punishment of incendiaries, and the legal 

 duties of forest officers. Very little is said about the 

 important subject of the prevention of forest fires. 

 We learn, however, that in France fire is only 

 dreaded in the pine forests of the Landes, and in the 

 broad-leaved forests of districts like the Maures and 

 Esterel, where an arid climate prevails. In Provence 

 the compulsory preventive measures are the rnainten- 

 ance of open rides along the borders of the forest, 

 and the clearing away of brushwood in belts four 

 yards wide on each side of the roads and paths 

 throughout the forest. In the Maures and Esterel, 

 but not elsewhere, the railway companies are obliged 

 by law to clear, at their own expense, belts ten to 

 fifty yards wide on both sides of the permanent way. 

 These fire-lines are too narrow to arrest the progress 

 of fire, but serve as bases from which counter-fires 

 can be started. 



The bulk of the book deals with the valuation of 

 forests at all ages and of all kinds, a difficult subject, 

 treated carefully and with great detail. The author 

 advocates what he styles the positive mode of valua- 

 tion. The value of the land itself is estimated. by 

 comparison with similar land near at hand, and not 

 by theoretical computations of its timber-producing 

 capacity. The standing crop of merchantable trees 

 is valued as they would be by a timber merchant, 

 namely, by actual measurement of their volume and 

 the price they would fetch in the local market. 

 Young stock, of no actual sale value, is reckoned by 

 discounting at the moment its estimated value at the 

 time when it would be ripe for felling. 



Many interesting facts and experiments are men- 

 tioned, especially with regard to thinning, which are 

 worth the attention of British foresters. The author 

 shows that thinnings properly executed in coppice — a 

 pi.uiic ii.\<i- attempted in England — increase the 

 liiial yield 50 per cent., and amply repay the small 

 )st of the operation. He declaims against the dense 

 stands of mature trees, which are common in high 

 forests in Germany, alleging that these, although 

 they show more stems, produce a less volume of 

 timber. Thinning is much more drastic in French 

 pine woods than in those of Germany. Pines are light- 

 demanding trees, and heavy thinning secures to each 

 individual the best conditions of light and nutrition, 

 both height and girth increments being stimulated. 

 Moreover, the thinnings yield a considerable revenue, 

 often surpassing in value the final crop, and as this 

 is available early, the rate of interest on the capital 

 NO. 2167, VOL. 86] 



at stake is materially increased. Thinning is also 

 necessary, where wind is dreaded, as it strengthens 

 the root systems of the trees that are left. In Ger- 

 many, it is usual to remove only the dead, decaying, 

 and suppressed stems, whereas in France some of the 

 dominant trees, though in full vigour, are removed. 

 It is often believed that growth in height is stimu- 

 lated by dense crops, whereas it has been proved by 

 experiments that not only does thinning increase the 

 diameter of the trees left standing, but it also in- 

 creases their actual height, and improves the form 

 of the stem, which becomes more cylindrical, with 

 an enlarged canopy of foliage. The importance of 

 dense woods at the outset is acknowledged by all, as 

 by their shade the stems are cleaned of their branches, 

 and timber free from knots is produced; but in the 

 later stages of growth there is no doubt of the ad- 

 vantage of the system of judicious repeated thinnings. 

 For oak and beech the effect is the same as for 

 pine. 



The disastrous effects of fire upon the soil of the 

 forest is well illustrated by the author, who also 

 enters at some length into the part played by the 

 forest in lessening hailstorms in its vicinity, in 

 irrtproving farm crops by its shelter, and in prevent- 

 ing disastrous floods at a distance. 



The book is remarkably cheap, only is. 3d., and 

 one cannot quarrel with the frequent misprints (C/. 

 p. 17, pendunculate for pedunculate, and holme for 

 holm), and its occasional curious phraseology. It 

 should be of great service in India, and can be read 

 with profit by landowners and foresters in England. 

 It is provided with eighteen pages of useful interest 

 tables. 



LIVING MATTER AND ITS FUNCTIONS. 



The Evolution and Function of Living Purposive 

 Matter. By N. C. Macnamara. (International 

 Scientific Series.) Pp. xi + 298. (London : Kegan 

 Paul, Trench, Triibner and Co., Ltd., igio.) Price 



THE object of this book is to trace and explain 

 the evolution of the functions of those elements 

 of living matter which are essential for the manifesta- 

 tion of purposiv'e, instinctive, and psychical 

 phenomena. The book is divided into two parts ; in 

 the first the evidence is given which the author be- 

 lieves proves the gradual evolution of purposive 

 action in protoplasm in the various classes of the 

 animal kingdom, in the second the soundness of these 

 conclusions is put to the test by giving in outline the 

 leading characteristics displayed by the Irish Celts of 

 County Clare — a long line of individuals who lived 

 under conditions well adapted to show the power 

 which their inherited qualities exercised on the actions 

 of many successive generations and on the destinies 

 of the race. . 



The author believes that protoplasm, even in the 

 lowest living forms, exhibits characteristics which 

 indicate the fxissession of purposive elements, and 

 that these undergo evolution pari passu with those 

 elements which constitute the structural parts of the 

 organism. The author holds that even among the 



