Maech 5, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



383 



engineering and physics. The cost of the 

 building and equipment will be $150,000. 

 Smith Hall, named for Professor Eugene A. 

 Smith, of the chair of geology, is also nearing 

 completion, and will be occupied by the de- 

 partments of geology and biology. This 

 building will cost $100,000. An academic 

 building, to be a duplicate of Smith Hall, will 

 be begun in the near future. 



At a session of the committee on education 

 of the Massachusetts legislature on February 

 24 the establishment of a " Massachusetts Col- 

 lege " was considered. The aim of such an 

 institution was explained by Mr. Courtenay 

 Crocker, Mr. Edmund D. Barbour and Pro- 

 fessor Thomas A. Jaggar, to be to carry higher 

 education to people not in a position to seek 

 its seats at colleges and universities, to give it 

 at a cost which would bring it within reach 

 of those in less than moderate circumstances, 

 and to furnish a training which would justify 

 the awarding of the degrees of A.B. and A.M. 

 Mr. Barbour has offered to give $100,000 to 

 promote the plan. 



The trustees of Wesleyan University have 

 voted to abolish coeducation in the institution 

 after the class entering in the fall of 1909. 

 It is planned, however, to establish in connec- 

 tion with the university a college for women. 



Mr. Samuel W. McCall, congressman from 

 Massachusetts, has declined the offer of the 

 presidency of Dartmouth College. 



LoRANDE Loss WooDRurF, Ph.D. (Columbia), 

 has been advanced to an assistant professor- 

 ship of biology in Tale University. 



Assistant Professor Egbert W. Hall has 

 been promoted to the professorship of biology 

 at Lehigh University. 



Mr. Louis A. Herdt, associate professor of 

 electrical engineering at McGill University, 

 will succeed Professor Owens in the chair of 

 electrical engineering. 



The electors to the Waynflete professorship 

 of mineralogy at Oxford have elected Dr. Her- 

 bert Lister Bowman, M.A., D.Sc, New Col- 

 lege, to the professorship in the place of Dr. 

 Henry A. Miers, D.Sc, fellow of Magdalen, 



who resigned this chair last October, on his 

 election to the principalship of London Uni- 

 versity. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE 



FOREST preservation 



To THE Editor of Science: In a recent 

 number of an engineering paper appears an 

 editorial entitled, " How ' Concrete Lumber ' 

 Has Made Eorest Preservation a Farce." The 

 article opens with the following words: 



The fast-perishing forests of America have been 

 the theme of many a statistical lament. " Behold 

 the loss of all this wealth, this criminal waste of 

 natural resources!" cries the statistician, until 

 we find ourselves almost sniffling in sympathy. 

 Amid all this illogical agitation (sic) for forest 

 preservation it is well to turn an eye toward the 

 timber of the future " concrete lumber " as it has 

 been aptly called, etc. 



Are we to understand that engineers and 

 contractors are willing to look forward to a 

 concrete age, which will be independent of the 

 waste of natural resources? The statistician 

 tells us that the production of cement in 1890 

 was 335,000 barrels; in 1907 it was 52,000,000 

 barrels, worth $56,000,000. Will some one tell 

 us how many tons of coal will be required to 

 manufacture the cement which the world will 

 require during the present century ? And then 

 will some one go farther and estimate how 

 many board feet of lumber are likely to be 

 used to make the forms required for concrete 

 construction? The organized effort which is 

 now being made to educate the people, so that 

 wasteful extravagance shall cease, should re- 

 ceive the hearty support of the engineering 

 profession and press. The following statement 

 of Dr. I. C. White, state geologist of West 

 Virginia, is likely to become classic and can 

 not be too often reprinted: 



Just as sure as the sun shines and the sum of 

 two and two is four, unless this insane riot of 

 destruction and waste of our fuel resources which 

 has characterized the past century shall be speed- 

 ily ended, our industrial power and supremacy 

 will, after a meteor-like existence, revert before 

 the close of the present century to those nations 



