274 



NA TURE 



(July 20, 1905 



■congress is the meeting together and getting to know- 

 one's fellow- workers ; and an expression of thanks 

 is due to the organising committee under the joint 

 presidentship of Profs. Wiesncr and von Wettstein, 

 ■with Dr. Zahlbruckner as the energetic secretary, to 

 Prof. Flahault, the firm and genial president of the con- 

 ference on nomenclature, and finally to Dr. Briquet, 

 whose name must always be associated with the 

 latest attempt to solve the ve.xcd question of plant- 

 nomenclature. 



At the final meeting, in response to an invitation 

 from the Belgian Government voiced by Prof. Errera, 

 Brussels was selected as the place of meeting for the 

 third congress, which will be held in 1910. 



A. B. Rendle. 



ENTRANCE EXAMINATION TO THE INDIAN 



FOREST SERVICE. 

 /^N May n the Secretary of State for India issued 

 ^^ the regulations for the forthcoming entrance 

 examinations for the Indian Forest Serviced Amongst 

 the features of these regulations two are of con- 

 siderable importance. 



The age limit is raised to twenty-one years on 

 January i preceding the examination, so that the 

 average B..\. who graduates usually between twenty- 

 one and twenty-two may compete. The second point 

 of interest is the schedule of the subjects in which he 

 is to be examined. 



According to the regulations given in the East 

 India (Forest Service) Blue-book, Cd. 2523, the sub- 

 jects in which the candidates are to be tested are 

 four — chemistry, physics, botany, and zoology — and 

 the schedules imply that the knowledge which the 

 candidate is expected to exhibit is of a very limited 

 description. Speaking roughly, the examination will 

 be harder than the preliminary scientific examination 

 which every candidate for a medical degree is obliged 

 to take, but not much harder. Medical students 

 generally pass their preliminary scientific examination 

 during their first year, though there are cases in 

 which they pass it while still at school. The Indian 

 forestry students may pass their entrance examination 

 in their third or fourth year. The Blue-book stated 

 that each candidate must qualify in all four subjects, 

 but for some reason or another— -and probably because 

 the entry under the new regulations is small — the 

 .Secretary of State for India has now still further 

 lightened a very elementary examination, and is now 

 advertising in our columns that zoology is optional. 

 Thus men, who may be graduates, will be admitted 

 into a great public service on an examination which 

 comprises but three out of the ordinary four subjects 

 which candidates for medical degrees normally pass 

 in their first year, and judging by the schedules the 

 amount in each subject to be " got up " is little more 

 than in the preliminary examination for an M.B. 

 degree. 



When we remember that in the Indian Civil 

 'Service examination the standard of the subjects is 

 that of an honours examination, and that a candidate 

 takes not three subjects, but eight, nine, ten, or more. 

 It is obvious that the Secretary of State is trying to 

 recruit the forest officers from men of a markedly 

 Inferior intellectual range, and the strictures which 

 were passed by Sir George King on the Indian 

 foresters at the Dover meeting of the British 

 •■Vssociation will probably need repeating a few years 

 lience. 



The schedules are well adapted for an elementary 

 pass or plough examination, but are ill adapted for a 

 competitive examination. It will be very difficult, if 

 not impossible, to select the best candidates competing 

 Jn an examination carried on on these lines. 



NO. 1864, VOL. 72] 



NOTES. 



JKs important step in the direction of the adoption by 

 this country of a decimal system of weights and measures 

 has been taken by the Board of Trade. In reply to a 

 resolution sent to the Board of Trade by the secretary of 

 the Association of Chambers of Commerce, in which the 

 Board was asked to authorise weights of 20 lb., 10 lb., 

 and 5 lb. as aliquot parts of the cental. Lord Salisbury 

 has written : — " With reference to your letter of March 14 

 last, in which you suggest that new denominations of 

 weights of 20 lb., 10 lb., and 5 lb. should be legaHsed 

 for use in trade, the Board of Trade have given careful 

 consideration to the representations which have been 

 made, and they are prepared to assent to the application. 

 .Steps will, therefore, be taken for the preparation of 

 standard-- of the same octagonal form as the present 50 lb. 

 weight." The chambers consider that this concession will 

 save time, labour, and e.xpense, as the 50 lb. weight has 

 done already. 



CoM.MANDER Pe.irv Sailed on Sunday last to make a 

 further attempt to reach the North Pole. Before leaving, 

 he communicated various particulars respecting his ex- 

 pedition to Renter's Agency. His plan is based upon the 

 Smith Sound, or " American " route to the Pole, and his 

 object is to force his ship to a base within 500 miles of 

 the Pole itself, and then to sledge across the Polar pack. 

 The Arctic ship Roosevelt, which has been specially built 

 for this expedition, has been constructed so as to with- 

 stand the heavy ice pressure, and is so shaped that the 

 pressure of the ice pack will have the effect of raising the 

 vessel out of the water. The ship will carry a wireless 

 telegraphic outfit, which, with one or two relay stations 

 in Greenland, will keep her in communication with the 

 permanent telegraph station at Chateau Bay, Labrador, 

 and thence by existing lines with New York. By the same 

 means communication with the expedition will be possible, 

 at least for a portion of the distance, when in February 

 next the sledge party leaves the Roosevelt for the northern 

 dash. The ship will carry two j'ears' supplies. \Vith 

 regard to the route to be followed, it is intended to establish 

 a permanent sub-base at Cape Sabine, on the west coast of 

 Smith's Sound, and, after securing the services of the 

 necessary Eskimos, to force the vessel through Kane Basin 

 and Kennedy and Robeson Channels to the northern coast 

 of Grant Land or of Greenland, if the conditions should 

 compel it, and there winter within 500 miles of the Pole. 

 From these winter quarters a start north over the Polar 

 pack will be made in February. The explorers will have 

 available a probable period of five months in which to 

 traverse the distance between their vessel and the Pole. 

 In the event of the failure of the Roosevelt to force 

 Kennedy and Robeson Channels during the first summer 

 the dash for the Pole will have to be postponed until 

 February, 1907. 



The seventy-third annual meeting of the British Medical 

 Association will take place at Leicester from July 24 to 2S. 

 .■\ddresses in medicine and surgery will be delivered re- 

 spectively by Dr. H. Maudsley and Mr. C. J. Bond, and, 

 following the precedent of last year, a popular lecture will 

 be given (on July 28) by Prof. Wm. Stirling, who will 

 take as his subject the phenomena of fatigue and repose. 



The Geologists' Association announces an excursion to 

 Central Wales extending from July 24 to 29. The head- 

 quarters are to be at Llandrindod Wells. 



The first International Congress of Physiotherapy will 

 be held at Li^ge from .-\ugust 12 to 15 next. The ques- 

 tions proposed for discussion are, says the Brilisti Mcdiciil 



