June 15, 1905] 



NA TURE 



annual exports having amounted to 382,000 cwt. The 

 petroleum industry increased at a greater rate even than 

 coal mining, the production having risen from 19,000,000 

 gallons in 1897 to 88,000,000 gallons in 1903. Rubies 

 form, next to petroleum, the chief source of revenue 

 from minerals in Burma, the value of the output having 

 risen from 57,950/. to 98,575/. In the case of mica, India 

 is the leading producer, and supplies half the world's con- 

 sumption. The value of the mica produced in 1898 was 

 53,890/., and in 1903 86,277/. '1 he waste heaps are 

 now turned over to supply the cheaper varieties required 

 for the manufacture of micanite for electric insulation. 

 The rapid development of the manganese ore industry has 

 been very remarkable. Twelve years ago mining had 

 hardly begun, and now more high-grade ore is produced 

 than in any other country except Russia. The value of 

 the output in 1898 was 27,426/., whilst in 1903 it was 

 132,741/. Jadestone, which is being exported in increasing 

 <iuantities to the Straits and China, with an average annual 

 value of 44,770/. for the mineral exported, must be classed 

 among the important minerals, its value being seven times 

 that of the tin and half that of the rubies. Iron ore is 

 mined to supply the Barakar works and the old charcoal 

 furnaces still persisting in the more remote districts. In 

 view of the fact that the imports of iron and steel are 

 increasing year by year, there appear to be good grounds 

 for utilising the abundant ore supplies by starting iron 

 works on a large scale. During the period under review 

 the graphite deposits of Travancore and the magnesite 

 deposits of Salem received attention, and now form 

 serious items in the comparatively limited markets of these 

 minerals. Tin is more widely distributed in India than 

 is generally recognised, and in South Burma river gravels 

 are washed for tin with considerable commercial success. 



The minerals for which statistics of production are in- 

 complete are of a very varied nature, the list including 

 alum and aluminium ore, amber, antimony, arsenic, 

 asbestos, borax, building stones, chromite, clays, copper 

 ore, corundum and other abrasives, gem stones, glass- 

 making sands, lead, silver and zinc ores, millstones, 

 mineral paints, mineral waters, phosphates, rare earths, 

 slate, sodium compounds, steatite, and sulphur. It is 

 evident that there is great scope for development in the 

 mining of metalliferous minerals and of minerals that are 

 needed for the more complicated chemical and metallurgical 

 industries. This is not surprising in view of the fact that 

 by-products are indispensable sources of profit in modern 

 chemical and metallurgical practice ; and India must con- 

 tinue to pay taxes on imports until industries arise demand- 

 ing a sufficient number of chemical products to complete 

 an economic cycle. Until that time, ores that will not pay 

 to work for their metal contents alone must necessarily be 

 neglected. 



DISEASES OF FOREST TREES. 

 npiIE Board of Agriculture and Fisheries has recently 

 issued a set of nine diagrams illustrating the diseases 

 of forest trees. The set is composed of forty-five coloured 

 figures. Very scant attention has been paid to this im- 

 portant branch of forestry in the past, and it is only 

 within comparatively recent times that such works as those 

 of Hartig and Sommerville, Tubeuf and Smith, Marshall 

 Ward, Massee and others have directed attention to the 

 importance of the study of tree diseases from a practical 

 point of view. By such means the public has come to 

 realise that plants, like animals, are subject to various 

 ailments which, if not attended to, may become epidemic 

 ;md cause serious loss, not only in forestry, but also in 

 Ihe sister industries of agriculture and horticulture. As an 

 instance of the serious loss which may be caused by fungus 

 disease in trees, we need only mention the larch canker 

 fungus, which has in many cases reduced one of the most 

 stately trees of Europe to an unsightly cripple, and is 

 thereby responsible for the loss of many hundreds of 

 thousands of pounds in this country alone. Its ubiquity 

 in this country is no doubt in a large measure due to the 

 lack of proper care in the selection of localities and proper 

 treatment of this timber tree. This is only one of the 

 many examples of the havoc which may be wrought by 

 epidemics among forest trees, and in addition to this Ihe 



NO. 1859. VOL. 72I 



fruit-grower, the farmer, and the gardener could also 

 furnish parallel examples to swell the list. As we have 

 already stated, the importance of these matters is becoming 

 greater as scientific investigation proceeds. It is of vital 

 importance in practice that a plant disease of any kind 

 should be recognised in its earliest stages, as it is then 

 in most cases capable of being stamped out. It is too late 

 to adopt preventive measures when the presence of the 

 disease is made known by the destruction of the crop. 



The importance of the whole subject to the public in 

 general is shown by the fact that the Board of Agriculture 

 has issued the above valuable series of diagrams, each 

 illustration being accompanied by a printed description on 

 a separate sheet. 



The set contains the best series we have of the diseases 

 of forest trees, and should find a place not only in all 

 our universities and colleges, but in every school through- 

 out the country. It is absolutely indispensable to all 

 foresters and to those interested in the growth and pro- 

 duction of timber. 



The price, which is one shilling per diagram, should 

 bring the set within the reach of all. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Cambridge. — The council of the Senate has had under 

 its consideration an offer received from the Surveyors' 

 Institution to provide scholarships in the university, with 

 the object of affording facilities for the higher education 

 of surveyors in branches of scientific knowledge cognate 

 to their profession. The council, after consultation with 

 the Board of .'\gricultural Studies, is of opinion that the 

 offer should be gratefully accepted. The scholarships will 

 be called "The .Surveyors' Institution Scholarships"; 

 they will be three in number, one to be awarded annually. 

 Each scholarship will be tenable for three years, and will 

 be of the value of 80/. per annum. 



The general board of studies has approved the name of 

 .VIr. A. N'. Whitehead for the degree of Doctor in Science. 



In the mathematical tripos, part i., the senior wranglers 

 (bracketed equal) are Mr. J. E. Littlewood and Mr. J. 

 Mercer, both of Trinity. 



Oxford. — The following have been appointed examiners 

 in the science schools : — P. J. Kirkby (physics), D. H. 

 Nagel (chemistry), Gustav Mann (physiology), J. G. Kerr 

 (zoology), Robert Howden (anatomy), James Ritchie 

 (pathology), D'Arcy Power (surgery), W. W. Fisher 

 (preventive medicine and public health). 



Decrees have been passed to authorise the expenditure 

 of 475/. on extending the system of electric lighting in 

 the university museum, to raise the total emoluments of 

 the Wykeham professor of physics to 800/. a year, and 

 to raise the salary of his demonstrator in advanced work 

 by 100/. a year, so that he may take charge of the labor- 

 atory both in vacation and term time on occasions of the 

 absence of the professor. 



The honorary degree of D.Sc. has been conferred on 

 Prof. Ray Lankester, who delivered the Romanes lecture 

 on June 14, and the degree of D.M. on Prof. William 

 Osier. 



Only one man of science — Prof. G. H. Darwin — is 

 included in the list of honorary degrees for the Encaenia 

 this year. 



Prof. A. S. Mackenzie, professor of physics in Bryn 

 Mawr College, has been appointed to the chair of physics 

 in Dalhousie College. 



The Senate of the University of Birmingham has decided 

 to invite Sir Archibald Geikie, F.R.S., to deliver the 

 Huxley lecture in 1906. 



We learn from Science that it is announced that Harvard 

 University has received an anonymous gift of 20,000/. for 

 a museum of social ethics, and 10,000/. from Mr. Jacob 

 H. SchifT, of New York, for explorations in Palestine. 



An exhibition of practical work executed by students of 

 technical classes and by candidates at the recent annual 

 e.xaminations of the City and Guilds of London Institute 

 will be opened at the Imperial Institute on Wednesday, 

 June 28, by the Right Hon. Earl Spencer. 



