JANUARY 5, 1912] 
tirely original, as, for example, Tobit ben 
Korra for Thabit ben Qorra. 
The most amusing statement is, “ Fahri des 
al Karhi, who flourished about the beginning 
of the eleventh century, is the author of the 
most important Arabian work on algebra.” 
Now Al-Fakhri, or Fakhri, is, indeed, the 
title of an Arabic work on algebra by one 
Abu Bekr Mohammed ibn Al-husain AlI- 
Karkhi, or Al-Karkhi, for short. But the des 
seems, at first, unexplainable. The proba- 
bility is that the des is German and some 
chance reference in German to the Fakhri des 
Al-Karkhi, the Fakhri of Al-Karkhi, undoubt- 
edly accounts for this Farhi des Al Karhi. 
Equally bad from a mathematical point of 
view is the surprising statement that “the 
Arabs accomplished the general solution of 
numerical equations.” 
The shorter article by the same writer on 
“Geometry, History,” contains, of course, 
fewer errors. We must regard it as fortunate, 
in view of the errors I have shown and others 
not noted in the article on the history of 
algebra, that there is no article on the history 
of arithmetic. In pleasing contrast to these 
articles mentioned is the summary of the his- 
tory of trigonometry by E. W. Hobson. 
The one man best qualified to write a sum- 
mary of the history of algebra and also of 
geometry is undoubtedly Sir Thomas L. 
Heath, sometime fellow of Trinity College, 
Cambridge. Even in 1910 the Cambridge 
University Press published a second edi- 
tion of Heath’s “ Diophantus” and in 1908, 
Heath’s “The Thirteen Books of Euclid’s 
Elements,” in three volumes. We may well 
express our surprise that the fame of Sir 
Thomas Heath should not be known to his 
Alma Mater, which stands sponsor for the 
encyclopedia, and that his aid was not sought 
for the history of mathematics in the Brit- 
annica. L. C. Karpinsxt 
ANN ARBOR, MICH. 
DEVASTATION OF FORESTS IN THE WHITE 
MOUNTAINS 
To those who have supposed that the Weeks 
bill for the preservation of the Appalachian 
SCIENCE 31 
forests has settled a long-debated question, 
and that the advocates of the measure may 
now take a rest, secure in the belief that its 
execution is in the hands of a scientific man, 
armed both with authority and with knowl- 
edge, the article by Winthrop Packard in the 
Boston Transcript for October 7, 1911, stating 
the results of his exploration of the White 
Mountain region during the past summer will 
be a distinct shock. 
“Tumbering,” says Mr. Packard, “used to 
be a winter job, but there is no let-up in the 
rush now on to get the last spruce off the high 
levels of the White Mountains.” The Weeks 
bill “is still about to work. But meanwhile 
the only part of it which is really working is 
the joker . . . which makes it indefinitely in- 
operative.” An “innocent little paragraph in 
the Weeks bill says, in effect, that the head 
of the United States Geological Survey shall 
decide what areas are to be reserved along the 
head waters of the navigable rivers.” 
“ Meanwhile, whether it affects the naviga- 
tion of the Connecticut, the Androscoggin, 
the Saco and the Merrimac or not, the last of 
the good black growth of spruce, fir and hem- 
lock is rapidly coming off the higher slopes of 
the Presidential Range and the lesser ranges 
that surround it.” 
“The best of the beautiful primeval forest 
is still above the high-water mark of this cut- 
ting, but it will take only a winter or two to 
encompass its downfall, and the investigations 
of the Geological Survey may probably be 
depended upon to hold the Weeks bill by the 
throat for that length of time, if not forever. 
“The largest body of spruce left within 
sight of Mount Washington is that which lies 
at the head of the Rocky Branch Valley, 
between the Montalban Range on the west, the 
Rocky Branch Ridge on the east and Boott’s 
Spur. . . . Here are some square miles of 
splendid black growth. .. . It is a virgin for- 
est which one might suppose would last be- 
cause of its inaccessibility. It is walled in by 
mountains on three sides and is sixteen miles 
up a tremendously rough valley from the 
south. This valley is drained by a tributary 
