NATURE 



[June 6, 1907 



spent two years (1S81-3) in Madras. The department 

 thus created has prown until it has now an area of 

 J39,ooo square miles, equal to twice the area of Great 

 Britain and Ireland, under its management. 



When Brandis first started operations he had to do 

 with what staff he could lay his hands on ; but he 

 determined to obtain one fit to deal with the require- 

 ments of the case. In 1866, while on sick leave in 

 England, he obtained the sanction of the late Lord 

 Salisbury, then .Secretary of State for India, to train 

 young Englishmen in Continental forest schools, and 

 under this scheme a number of highly qualified 

 foresters have been sent to India. The training at 

 Continental forest schools was subsequently supplanted 

 by that at Coopers Hill College, and now at the 

 University of O.xford. 



But Brandis went a step further. In 1878 he 

 started a forest school at Dehra Dun for the training 

 of natives of India, which has now been raised to 

 the rank of "The Imperial Indian Forest College," 

 and sends annually from forty to fifty trained execu- 

 tive officers into the service. 



By these means a trained staff of 200 Englishmen 

 have been obtained, who control the operations of the 

 forest department, assisted by about 11,000 native 

 officials of various grades. The results are most 

 gratifying. The supply of timber, firewood, grass, 

 and other produce for the teeming millions of India 

 has been placed on a satisfactory footing, while the 

 net revenue from the forests has risen from 40,000/. 

 in 1864 to 660,000/. in 1004, although produce valued 

 at a similar sum is given free to the people of the 

 country. 



During his career in India Brandis wrote an endless 

 number of reports, and in 1874 he brought out the 

 " Forest Flora of North-west and Central India." a 

 work which was so highly thought of by Sir Joseph 

 Hooker and others that he was made a Fellow of the 

 Royal .Societv in 1875. It may not be generally known 

 that Brandis was the first who compiled a rainfall 

 map of India; it has been improved since, but as 

 regards the main points it holds good to this day. 



Brandis retired from the Indian service in 1883, at 

 the age of fiftv-nine years ; but he continued to devote 

 himself to the advancement of forest conservancy in 

 India, by articles and letters of advice to his friends 

 in India. From 1888 to i8q6 he superintended the 

 practical instruction in Germany of the Coopers Hill 

 forest students. 



The last eight years of his life he devoted to the 

 writing of a general Indian forest flora, which he 

 published in 1906 under the title of " Indian Trees," 

 a monumental work, which is likelv to be the stand- 

 ing book of reference on the subject for another 

 generation. .Scarcely had he completed this when he 

 fell ill, and he never rose from his sick bed. He was 

 made a CLE. in 1876, and a K.C.I.E. in 1887. 



It should not be omitted to mention that Brandis 

 had a great share in the development of forest con- 

 servancy in the LTnited Slates. He guided the studies 

 of quite a number of young ."Xmericans, who have since 

 established a great department in the L'nited States. 

 His influence in this respect has been so great that 

 President Roosevelt presented him with his picture 

 and the following dedication : — " To .Sir Dietrich 

 Brandis in high appreciation of his services to forestry 

 in the l'nited .Slates, from Theodore Roosevelt." 



.Apart from India and the United States, Brandis's 

 action has been felt in almost all parts of the British 

 Empire, including these islands. He has left his 

 mark upon every continent of the earth ; at any rate, 

 his name will go to posterity as the father of system- 

 atic forest management in the British Empire. 



W. SCHLICH. 



NO. 1962, VOL. 76] 



We regret to Icarii that Dr. Maxwell T. Masters, 

 F.R..S., who.se writings on botanical and horticultural 

 subjects are familiar to many readers of Nature, died on 

 May 30 at seventy-four years of age. 



Thk annual conversazione of the Institution of Electrical 

 Engineers will be held at the Natural History Museum, 

 Cromwell Road, on Tuesday evening, June 18. 



Dr. W. .S. Bruck and the remainder of his stall, who 

 are starting on an expedition to the Arctic, have left 

 Edinburgh for Spitsbergen. The expedition will finally be 

 relieved and brought back to Europe by the Prince of 

 .Monaco on board his yacht the Princess Alice. 



Prof. Paul Emrlicii will deliver the second and third 

 of his series of Harben lectures of the Royal Institute of 

 Public Health on Friday, June 7, and Tuesday, June 11. 

 The subject of the lectures is " Experimental Researches 

 on .Specific Therapeutics," and they will be delivered at the 

 Rnyal Medico-Chirurgical Society, 20 Hanover Square, al 

 5 p.m. on each day. 



(iiLnKRT White's autograph manuscript of his " Natural 

 History and .\nliquities of Selborne," in Iho form of letters 

 to Thomas Pennant and Daines Barringlon, and arranged 

 in a folio volume, will be sold by Messrs. Sotheby on 

 July I. The MS. remained in the possession of the 

 author's descendants until 1S95, when it was sold at 

 Sotheby's and acquired by the present owner, Mr. Stuart 

 M. Samuel, M.P. 



The council of the .Society of Arts, with the approval of 

 His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, its president, 

 has awarded the .Albert medal of the society for the current 

 year to the Earl of Cromer " In recognition of his pre- 

 eminent public services in Egypt, where he has imparted 

 security to the relations of this country with the East, 

 has established justice, restored order and prosperity, and, 

 by the iiiitialion of great works, has opened up new fields 

 for enterprise." 



At a meeting of ihe Corporation of the City of London 

 on May 30, the Lord Mayor presiding, it was decided 

 unanimously to present the freedom of Ihe City to Lord 

 Lister and the Ear! of Cromer. Mr. .Alderman Alliston, in 

 moving that the honorary freedom of the City be presented 

 to Lord Lister in a gold box, in recognition of his eminence 

 as a surgeon and the invaluable services he has rendered 

 to humanity by the discovery of the antiseptic system, re- 

 marked that more than one hundred years have elapsed 

 since the Court bestowed the freedom of the City on a 

 member of the medical or surgical profession. The last 

 was that given to Edward Jenner, the discoverer of vaccin- 

 ation, in 1803. Since then the Corporation has welcomed 

 Royal personages, great warriors, eminent statesmen, and 

 others, but the still small voice of the personal ills that 

 flesh is heir to — their amelioration and remedy — have, Mr. 

 -Mliston pointed out, somewhat escaped the City's notice. 

 The deficiency is now to be rectified, and the City Lands 

 Committee has been empowered to make the necessary 

 arrangements for the presentation of the freedom to Lord 

 Lister at an early date. 



Os .August 15, weather permitting, the inlernational 

 laboratory for Alpine investigations, at the Col d'Olen, 

 on Monte Rosa, will be formally opened. In two articles 

 contributed by the late Sir Michael Foster to Nature (vol. 

 Ixv., p. 568, and vol. Ixxi., p. 443), he described the labor- 

 atory established on the Gnifetti peak of Monte Rosa, at 



