t82 



NATURE 



[May 9, 1918 



civilisation. "Give us the young-, and we vvill 

 create a new mind and a new earth in a single 

 generation." 



Mr. Kidd died in 1916, and we do not know to 

 what . extent he was able to revise what is now 

 published in this book. We must say that we 

 find in it what seem to us examples of exaggera- 

 tion, false antithesis, and simplicist formulation ; 

 nevertheless, it is a rousing- book of unmistakable 

 sincerity and earnestness of conviction. 



FORESTRY IN CORSICA, ALGERIA, AND 

 TUNISIA. 



French Forests and Forestry: Tunisia, Algeria, 

 Corsica. With a Translation of the Algerian 

 eode of 1903. By T. S. Woolsey, jun. Pp. xv + 

 238. (New York : J. Wiley and Sons, Inc. ; 

 London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1917.) 

 Price 115. 6d. net. 



THIS book is provided with a somewhat mis- 

 leading title, so that the reader expects a 

 description of forests and forestry practice in 

 France ; whereas the three dependencies of 

 Corsica, Algeria, and Tunisia are dealt with. The 

 author, who was formerly a forest officer in the 

 United States, visited these three countries and 

 studied them as an expert. His detailed descrip- 

 tion of the distribution, management, administra- 

 tion, and protection of the forests may be regarded 

 as authoritative. His remarks on sylvicultural 

 methods are of great interest, especially to 

 foresters in the United States and in our 

 own Colonies, where the climatic conditions 

 are often similar to those in the countries here 

 described. 



In Tunisia, with 1,600,000 acres of forests, the 

 sole trees of commercial importance are the cork 

 oak, producing cork, and the Zeen oak [Quercus 

 mirbeckii), akin to our own species and yielding 

 an excellent timber. The annual receipts of these 

 forests vary from 24,000^ to 53,000/. The 

 most notable technical achievements of the French 

 foresters in Tunisia have been the protection of 

 the oases in the Djerid and the control of the 

 dunes at Bizerta and Cap Bon. The oasis is 

 usually not a mere spring, but in reality a rich 

 date-palm farm several hundred acres in area and 

 well worth the cost of protection against drifting 

 sand, excessive grazing, and erosion. The de- 

 scriptions of the ways in which sand fences are 

 built and of the various methods of coping with 

 erosion are interesting. Plantations have not been 

 successful, as the annual rainfall is only a few 

 centimetres, and the species to be grown must, 

 besides, withstand the burning siroccos which blow 

 during summer. The tamarisk has succeeded, but 

 only in a partial degree. 



In Algeria there are 7,000,000 acres of forests, 

 which mainly exist on land too poor to be cultivated 

 by the natives. The Government controls 4,800,000 

 acres, which yielded in 1910 a gross revenue of 

 150,000/. Cork oak contributes the greater part 

 NO. 2532, VOL. lOl] 



of this total. Cedar, the most remarkable species^ 

 yields a small quantity of good timber annually. 

 The Aleppo pine, which covers an immense area 

 estimated at 1,500,000 acres, yielded no revenue 

 until lately. Recent experiments show that it can 

 be tapped for turpentine with some commercial 

 success. The principal methods of regeneration 

 are described, and as a rule sowing in carefully 

 prepared spots is more successful than the plant- 

 ing out of seedlings. 



Corsica, with a total area of 2,155,161 acres, 

 has 431,000 acres of so-called forests, of which, 

 however, only 347,000 acres are stocked with 

 trees. The most important species is the Corsican 

 pine, which attains a height of 150 ft. and yields 

 a valuable timber. Its growth is vigorous up to 

 150 years old. It has been tapped for resin, but 

 the tapping killed many mature trees or consider- 

 ably slowed their growth. The Corsican pine is 

 now worked on a modification of the selection 

 system by which the trees to be felled are selected 

 in groups. The small openings thus made in the 

 stand give all the light necessary for the develop- 

 I ment of the seedlings. The areas felled, scattered 

 I irregularly over the forest,. vary in size from one- 

 tenth to one-fourteenth of an acre. The Corsican 

 peasants are still a lawless set, and very 

 difficult to control. Fire, excessive grazing by 

 j goats, trespass, and minor thefts are common ; 

 j and the actions at law brought by the forest 

 ; officers, whilst decreasing year by year, are still 

 very numerous. Of 598 actions brought in 191 1, 

 j no fewer than 314 ended in acquittal by complacent 

 I juries. The book concludes with an appendix, 

 I being a translation of the Algerian forest code, 

 I followed by statistics of Corsica and the 

 j clauses usual in a sale of timber in a communal 

 I forest. 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF SURGERY. 



The Edinburgh School of Surgery before Lister. 

 By Alexander Miles. Pp. viii + 220. (London : 

 A. and C. Black, Ltd., 1918.) Price 55. 

 net. 



THE author, who is one of the surgeons to the 

 Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, has com- 

 i pressed into 220 pages a great deal of interesting 

 matter concerning the development of surgery in 

 the northern capital from 1505 down to the period 

 preceding Lister. The origin of this famous 

 school may be said to date from the " seil of cause 

 granted be the Towne Counsell of Edinburgh to 

 the Craftes of Surrengenry and Barbouris " 

 whereby they received permission to dissect one 

 condemned criminal each year "quairthrow we 

 may heif experience, ilk ane to instruct utheris." 

 The principles here laid down to base surgery 

 on anatomy and to teach the same pervades the 

 whole history of the Edinburgh school down to 

 the period of Syme, its greatest representative 

 in the middle of last century. 



At first the barbers were eliminated from the 



