508 
TITCHENER asks us to announce that 
hundred dollars is offered for the best 
paper onthe availability of Pearsons formule for 
psychophysics. ‘The rules for the solution of this 
problem have been formulated in general terms by Dr. 
W. Brown. It is now required (1) to make their 
formulation specific; and: (2) to show how they work 
out in actual practice. This means that the writer 
must show the steps to be taken, in the treatment 
of a complete set of data, for attainment in every case 
of a definite result. ~The calculations should be 
arranged with a view to practical application—.e. so 
that the amount of computation is reduced to a mini- 
mum. Papers in competition for this prize will be 
received not later than: December 31, 1914, by Prof. 
E. B. Titchener, Cornell ' Heights, Ithaca, N.Y., 
U.S.A. Such papers are to be marked only with a 
motto, and are to be accompanied. by a sealed enve- 
lope, marked with the same motto, and containing 
the name and address of the writer. The prize will 
be awarded by a committee consisting of Profs. Wil- 
liam Brown, E. B. Titchener, and F. M. Urban, 
Prop oh. Es 
a prize of one 
Tue use of distributed inductance in telephone 
cables which was advocated many years ago by Mr. 
Oliver Heaviside, and was put into practice more 
recently by Pupin, has not only resulted in great 
economies in copper on long-distance telephone lines, 
but also has enabled submarine telephone cables to 
be brought into use for far greater distances than 
formerly. The most recent achievement in this direc- 
tion is the laying last month of a cable sixty-four 
nautical miles in length between Nevin, in Carnarvon- 
shire, and Howth, about eight miles from Dublin. 
Hitherto telephony between England and Ireland has 
been carried on through a cable twenty-four nautical 
miles in length between Port Mora (near Portpatrick) 
and Donaghadee, in connection with long land lines 
on both sides of the Channel. The new cable, which 
was manufactured by Siemens Bros. and Co., has four 
conductors weighing 160 lb. per nautical mile, and 
insulated with a special gutta-percha with a low leak- 
per nautical mile. At 
ance, weighing only 150 Ib, 
distances of one nautical mile apart, induct 
ance coils are inserted in each of the four cores. 
These are long narrow double-wound coils, each with 
an inductance of about 100 millihenrys. Their con- 
struction is such that they are enclosed in the gutta- 
percha covering in the same way as the cable itself, 
and the armouring is carried right over them. 
In the South American Supplement of The Times 
for December 30, attention is again directed to the 
possible effects of earthquakes on the Panama Canal. 
While retracing much of the ground covered in our 
former Notes on the subject, Prof. J. Stuart refers 
to several points that are worthy of consideration. 
The general belief as to the safety of the massive 
concrete walls of the locks is based on the assumption 
that the locks have been laid upon solid rock. This 
is the case with the locks at Pedro Miguel and Mira- 
flores, but those at Gatun are founded on beds of 
argillaceous sandstones, which were first described as 
indurated clays: Prof. Stuart points out that the 
fears as to the Gatun dam being opened by fissures 
NO. 2305, VOL. 92] 
NATURE 
[JANUARY I, 1914 
are probably groundless, for the San Leandro dam 
which stores the water supply of Oakland was un- 
injured by the San Francisco earthquake. He refers 
in conclusion to the possible effects of the excavations. 
More than 200 million cubic yards of material have 
been removed from the various cuttings and ‘deposited 
on the dams and elsewhere, and he suggests that this 
redistribution of stresses in the earth’s crust might 
facilitate the occurrence of earthquakes. 
Tue English Forestry Association, of ‘which Lord 
Clinton is president, and Mr. M. C. Duchesne (Farn- 
ham Common, Slough, Bucks) secretary, Proposes to 
hold a forest exhibition ing@kondon in 1914. The 
object of the exhibition is _to encourage English 
timber industries. Commercially the private forest 
owner cannot usually hope to obtain the rate of in- 
terest he looks for, on anything but short-rotation 
copse, and it is exactly underwood that has fallen so 
disastrously in price. The English Forestry Associa- 
tion has strong hopes of reviving the failing industry 
in wooden barrel hoops. It seems possible also to 
get back to better prices for firewood. By burning 
firewood in a properly constructed stove a_ heating 
power can be obtained equal to that of coal in the 
ordinary domestic fireplace—an open stove with the 
fire showing, and a healthy mixture of both radiant 
and convection heat. If such stoves came 
into use there would be a_ better demand 
for firewood. But the experience of other 
countries shows that it is the working with a large 
scheme of State forestry that is the saving feature 
of private forestry, and the forestry exhibition would 
help to direct attention to the fact that the Develop- 
ment Commission, after three and a half years, has 
failed to carry out its Act and initiate State forestry 
in Britain, while the slow progress in Ireland is 
exciting adverse comment. 
Major H. G. Jory pe Lorpinitre has contributed 
to The Eas Review for October a valuable and 
timely article on the position of forestry in England 
and abroad, in which he reviews the principal timber 
resources: of the world, and the steps that have been 
taken in England and elsewhere to provide for the 
future. As he points out, experts’ in every country 
are agreed that the world’s supply of timber is rapidly 
diminishing, and that unless vigorous steps are taken 
in the afforestation of suitable waste lands a shortage 
of material must be experienced long before the close 
of the present century. The author indicates in a 
general way the lines on which the work of afforest- 
ing the sixteen million acres of mountainous and heath 
land in this country should be proceeded with, and 
urges the necessity for immediate action. 
Tue trustees of the British Museum have acquired 
recently a unique gold coin of extraordinary interest. 
It is the only known example of the gold coinage of 
the Anglo-Saxon King Offa (a.p. 757-96); and its 
value lies in the fact that, though struck by a 
Christian King, it bears a Mohammedan inscription in 
Arabic. Offa agreed to pay a tribute in gold of 
Peter’s Pence, and he probably used the predominat- 
ing gold currency of his day as the best model for his 
purpose, adding the inscription ‘‘Offa rex” to that 
