462 



NA TURE 



[Sept. 6, 1888 



ness for any person with a delicate constitution. While Spanish 

 rule in South America carefully protected the forests from de- 

 struction, it permitted this to go on almost unchecked at home. 

 Towards the end of the last century the great agrarian lawyer 

 and reformer, Jovellanos, who was the first to call the attention 

 of Spain to the disastrous effects which were being produced by 

 the want of supervision of the forests, wrote a pamphlet entitled 

 "Informe de la Sociedad economica de Madrid, al real y 

 supremo Consejo de Castilla, en el expediente de ley agraria 

 extendido por su individuo de numero Don Melchor Caspar de 

 Jovellanos a nombre de la Santa encargada de su formation, y 

 con arreglo a sus opiniones." This pamphlet paved the way for 

 the present excellent system of forestry. Special ordinances were 

 passed in the year 1835 for the foundation of a school of forest 

 engineers, but at the time no practical steps were taken ; but ten 

 years later, when domestic troubles had to some extent passed 

 away, the " Escuela especial de Ingenieros de Montes " (School 

 of Forestry) was firmly established and was followed by the 

 formation of a corps of forest engineers. The first School of 

 Forestry was situated at Villaviciosa, not far from Madrid, and 

 was under the control of Senor Bernardo de la Torre Rojas, who 

 is still styled " el padre de la Escuela Espaiiola de Montes." In 

 1869 the school was transferred from Villaviciosa to the Escurial, 

 part of which had been granted by the Government in the pre- 

 ceding year for that purpose. This institution is now under the 

 direction of Senor Bragat y Vinals, and there are nine professors 

 and three assistants under him, all of whom must have served 

 five years on the staff of forest engineers. The annual salaries 

 of these officers amount to ^1400, and appear in the annual 

 Budget of the Minister of " Fomento," which Department 

 includes public works, industry and commerce, agriculture, 

 public instruction. The total yearly cost of the school is ^"1700. 

 The following are the subjects taught by the professors, each 

 group having a professor: (1) forestal legislation ; (2) political 

 economy, forestal meteorology; (3) applied mechanics and 

 forestal construction ; (4) topography and geodesy; (5) chemistry, 

 mineralogy, and geology (applied) ; (6) botany ; (7) sylviculture, 

 (8) zoology and forestal industries ; (9) classification of forests 

 and their valuation. The instruction is free, but the books and 

 instruments are charged for. The vacation depends on circum- 

 stances. If the practical work is completed, the months of 

 August and September are given ; four days in December and 

 three during the Carnival are given — that is, in all about nine 

 weeks. The number of students is practically unlimited. The 

 school is open to all who pass the preliminary examina- 

 tion — that is, to all who show proficiency in Spanish and Latin 

 grammar, geography, and Spanish history, elements of natural 

 history, of theoretical mechanics, geometry, and its relations to 

 projections and perspective, physics, chemistry, lineal, topo- 

 graphical, and landscape drawing, and an elementary know- 

 ledge of French and German. Immediately on entrance to the 

 school, particular attention is paid to topography, chemistry 

 (practical), and mathematics (applied). The topography course 

 includes the object of topography, and the difference between it 

 and geodesy ; the rules of triangulation and methods of demon- 

 strating the physical characteristics of the ground under survey ; 

 chart and plan drawing ; and an intimate knowledge of the use 

 of the instruments used in forestal topography. The course in 

 chemistry is very wide, including every detail of the applied 

 science appertaining to botany, mineralogy, and sylviculture. 

 In the school is a very fine collection of chemical apparatus and 

 instruments, including those of Bunsen, Dupasquier, Gay- 

 Lussac, Donovan, &c. Every kind of instrument required in 

 applied mechanics is also here. There is a very good library of 

 books attached to the school, comprising about 3000 volumes on 

 mathematics and the physical sciences, natural history, language, 

 literature, and history, arts and manufactures, &c. During the 

 first year the studies are topography, differential and integral cal- 

 culus, descriptive geometry, applied mathematics, and chemistry. 

 In the second year the subjects are mechanics, geodesy, meteoro- 

 logy, climatology, construction, and drawing ; in the third year, 

 mineralogy and applied zoology, applied geology, botany, and 

 sylviculture ; in the fourth year, kilometry, scientific classifica- 

 tion of forests, forest industries, law, and political economy. On 

 the completion of this four years' course, the successful candi- 

 dates are appointed to the staff of forest engineers. This corps 

 consists of 3 general inspectors, 15 district inspectors, 40 chief 

 engineers of the first class, 50 chief engineers of the second class, 

 60 second engineers of the first class, and 70 of the second class. 

 There are also 25 assistants of the first class, 350 of the second 



class, and 420 foremen planters. The salaries of the six grades 

 of engineers are respectively ^500, ^400, ^300, ,£260, ,£200, 

 ^160, besides an active service allowance of £1 a day to 

 inspectors, 16.?. a day to chief engineers, and 12s. a clay to the 

 others. The country is divided into 46 forestal departments, the 

 forest in each case being under the care of a chief engineer, but 

 the inspecting officers reside in Madrid. 



SCIENTIFIC SEXiALS. 



American Journal of Science, August. — History of the changes 

 in the Mount Loa craters ; Part 2, on Mokuaweoweo, or the 

 summit crater (continued), by James D. Dana. The subjects 

 here considered are (1) the times and time-intervals of eruptions 

 and of summit illuminations or activity, with reference to 

 periodicity, relations to seasons, variations in activity since 

 1843, and lastly the changes in the depth of the crater ; (2) the 

 ordinary activity within the summit crater ; (3) causes of the 

 ordinary movements within the crater. Among the general 

 conclusions are the rejection of any law of periodicity, and the 

 apparently established fact that the inland waters supplied by 

 precipitation are the chief source of the vapours concerned in 

 Hawaiian volcanic action. Then follows Part 3, dealing with 

 the characteristics and causes of eruptions ; metamorphism under 

 volcanic action ; the form of Mount Loa as a result of its 

 eruptions ; the relations of Kilauea to Mount Loa ; lastly, 

 general volcanic phenomena. — The Fayette County (Texas) 

 meteorite, by J. E. Whitfield and G. P. Merrill. The specimen 

 was found about ten years ago on the Colorado River near La 

 Grange, Fayette County. It weighs about 146 kilogrammes, and 

 analysis shows that the rocky portion consists essentially of 

 olivine and enstatite with some pyrrhotite. It belongs to the 

 class to which G. Rose has given the name of " chondrites, 1 

 and its most striking feature is its fine and compact texture. 

 exceeding that of any similar meteorite known to the authors.-— 

 Evidence of the fossil plants as to the age of the Potomac 

 formation, by Lester F. Ward. From these researches it ap- 

 pears that no Jurassic species, but many strongly Jurassic types, 

 occur. The Wealden furnishes the largest number of identical 

 species, after which follow the Cenomanian and Urgoman. All 

 these formations also yield many allied species, which, however, 

 are most abundant in the Oolitic. Altogether the flora would 

 appear to be decidedly Cretaceous, but probably not higher than 

 the Wealden and Neocomian. — E. II. Hall describes some 

 experiments carried on for over three years at Harvard College 

 on the effect of magnetic force on the equipotential lines of an 

 electric current ; and Thomas M. Chathard gives the analyses of 

 the waters of some Californian and other North American 

 alkali lakes. 



Memoires de la Societe a" Anthropologic, tome troisieme 

 (Paris, 1888). — This volume contains an exhaustive trea 

 Dr. Nicolas on automatism in voluntary acts and movements, 

 The author, who is an ardent opponent of the materialistic and 

 atheistic views common to many of his scientific brethren, is 

 especially anxious to call attention to questions such as those of 

 which he here treats, and which have hitherto been little con- 

 sidered in France. The main conclusion that he draws from the 

 accumulated mass of facts, which he has borrowed principally 

 from the labours of British and German biologists, is that the 

 superiority of an animal in the scale of being is determined by 

 the degree of liberty which it enjoys in controlling reflex actions, 

 and directing automatic reactions. — Contribution to the study of 

 anomalies of the muscles, by M. Ledouble. The principal 

 subjects here treated of are the variations in the iliac, costal, and 

 spinal processes of the latissimus dorsi muscle. — Philosophy, 

 considered from an anthropological point of view, by Dr. 

 Fauvelle. Although the writer passes in review the various 

 schools of philosophy which have sprung up in various periods 

 of time, his purpose is rather to follow the gradual evolution of 

 philosophic thought from the first appearance of man, than to 

 recount its history. Pointing out that comparative anatomy and 

 physiology teach us that intelligence depends directly on the 

 number and degree of differentiation of the cerebral cellules, he 

 asks whether we must assume that these have reached their 

 utmost limits of development, or whether new manifestations ol 

 cerebral perfection may not be reserved for man ? According to 

 his views, religions of all forms, and speculative philosophy, have 

 equally had the effect of impeding every kind of independent 

 intellectual labour, and have thus in different parts of the universe 



