618 SCIENCE 
Ttaliana is, of course, the most important. 
LEsplorazione Commerciale, the organ of the 
“Societa Italiana di esplorazioni geografiche 
e commerciali,” and L’Africa Italiana, pub- 
lished in Naples by the Societa Africana Ital- 
jana, have both shown signs of inereased ac- 
tivity of late years. They are monthlies and 
deal respectively with commercial and African 
geography from the Italian point of view. 
The Archivio Bibliografico Coloniale is a 
quarterly devoted entirely to the new colony 
of Tripoli. From the energetic “ Istituto Geo- 
grafico De Agostini” of Novara comes La 
Geografia, Rivista di Propaganda Geografica, 
ten numbers now being published annually. 
The purpose of the Rivista Geografica Ital- 
jana is to stimulate interest in geography, 
more especially in the geography of Italy. 
Tt is the organ of the “Societa di Studi 
Geograpfici e Coloniali,” but it is quite in- 
dependent. It also appears ten times during 
the year. The Rivista owes not a little of 
its importance to the support of the able pro- 
fessors of geography, notably the Marinellis, 
father and son, who have done so much to 
make Florence the leading center of geog- 
raphy in Italy. In Florence also are pub- 
lished Giotto Dainelli’s Memorie Geografiche, 
which take the form of long monographs, 
more especially those dealing with the geog- 
raphy of Italy; the Rassegna della Letteratura 
Geografica, a critical view of geographical 
literature; and the Rivista di Geografia didat- 
tica, which is concerned with the educational 
side of geography. All these are published 
under the auspices of the Rivista Geografica 
Ttaliana. The writer goes on to regret the 
absence of a periodical devoted exclusively to 
the geography of Italy. The publications of 
the Italian Alpine Club and the monthly 
bulletin of the “ Touring Club Italiano,” how- 
ever, do something to supply this want. 
Nature states that the German Chemical So- 
ciety has celebrated its jubilee by collecting a 
fund of two and one half million marks for 
the more extensive publication of chemical 
works of reference, such as Beilstein. In a 
report of the annual general meeting an agree- 
[N. 8S. Vou. XLVIII. No. 1251 
ment has been concluded with the Verein 
deutscher Chemiker with regard to publica- 
tions. The Chemisches Zentralblatt will deal 
more fully with technical chemistry, and will 
be available to the members of the latter so- 
ciety at a reduced rate. The Berichte will be 
subdivided, one section dealing with reports of 
meetings, notices, ete., the other containing 
the original scientific publications. The annual 
subscription to the German Chemical Society 
will become 10 marks, but will then only en- 
title members to receive the first of the above- 
named sections. A separate subscription will 
be required for the scientific section, as was 
already the case with the Zentralblatt. 
We learn from Nature that in accordance 
with the decision arrived at at the extraordi- 
nary general meeting of the Institute of Chem- 
istry held on April 27, local sections are now 
being formed in yarious important centers. 
The inaugural meeting of the Liverpool and 
North-Western section of the institute was held 
on Thursday, September 12. The registrar, 
who was in attendance by the direction of the 
council, referred to the objects to be attained 
by the establishment of local sections. It is 
anticipated that local sections will be imau- 
gurated during the coming session at Man- 
chester, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, 
Gretna, and probably other centers. 
At the request of the Bureau of Standards 
at Washington, government testing of rubber 
tires will henceforth be carried on at the lab- 
ortories of the University of Akron for the 
Akron district and all factories west of Akron. 
Tires purchased on specification by the goy- 
ernment from yarious rubber companies will 
be chemically tested by a staff of men assigned 
to the laboratories under direction of the 
Bureau of Standards. The work will be in- 
stalled and supervised under the direction of 
Mr. Arnold Smith, an Akron man and for- 
merly a student at the municipal university, 
now employed at the Bureau of Standards. 
In all probability a force of at least a dozen 
chemists will be employed in this work. En- 
tire direction of the work will be assumed by 
the Bureau of Standards and the University 
