■AtJGUST 16, 1912] 



SCIENCE 



213 



11,000,000 barrels and with an increase in 

 price at the end of the year, it is evident that 

 an unusual condition in the oil market ex- 

 isted. The three commodities of general 

 market value to be considered in connection 

 with crude oils are gasoline, kerosene and re- 

 siduals, the last suitable for fuels in the west 

 and for lubricants and wax in the east. In 

 the trade " naphtha " is the name generally 

 applied to oils lighter than kerosene as distilled 

 from crude oil, but by the public the term 

 " gasoline " is applied to the light fraction of 

 the oil suitable for internal-combustion en- 

 gines. In fact, when crude naphtha is redis- 

 tilled it is for the most part separated so as to 

 yield gasoline and lighter or heavier kerosene. 

 The demand for gasoline has become so im- 

 perative that little or none is now allowed to 

 lower the safety of lamp oils; the latter have 

 therefore greatly improved in character. In 

 the production for 1911 California led with 

 81,134,391 barrels; Oklahoma took second 

 place, with 56,069,63Y barrels; Illinois was 

 third, with 31,317,038 barrels; and Louisiana 

 was fourth, with 10,720,420 barrels. The 

 prices of the different oils varied greatly, 

 ranging from 47 cents to $1.32 a barrel. 

 Thus while the production in Pennsylvania 

 was only 8,248,158 barrels, its value was $10,- 

 894,074, whereas Louisiana, which produced 

 10,720,420 barrels, received for it only $5,668,- 

 814. The greatest increases in production in 

 1911 were in California, 8,123,831 barrels; in 

 Oklahoma, 4,040,919 barrels and in Louisiana, 

 3,879,025 barrels. The principal decreases 

 were in Illinois, 1,826,324 barrels, and in 

 Ohio 1,099,258 barrels. The following table 

 of total production shows the general increase 

 in production for the United States since 1901. 



1901 69,389,194 



1903 100,461,337 



1905 134,717,580 



1907 166,095,335 



1909 183,170,874 



1911 220,449,391 



: . AccoRDjNG to Terrestrial Magnetism, prepa- 

 j-ations .arp, being made, under the superin- 

 tendence of Professor Tanakadate, to send out 

 four parties for making a new magnetic sur- 



vey of Japan, to be completed within two 

 years. The same general scheme of work will 

 be followed according to which the first survey 

 of about eighteen years ago was successfully 

 accomplished under Professor Tanakadate's 

 direction. The issuing of the British Ad- 

 miralty chart of lines of equal magnetic dec- 

 lination has been recently transferred from 

 the Hydrographic Department of the Ad- 

 miralty to the Magnetic and Meteorological 

 Department of the Royal Observatory, Green- 

 wich. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS 

 It is reported that Mr. P. A. B. Widener, 

 of Philadelphia, has increased to one million 

 dollars his gift to Harvard University for a 

 library building in memory of his grandson, 

 Harry Elkins Widener. 



The late Dr. John Dixon Mann, who oc- 

 cupied the chair of forensic medicine in the 

 University of Manchester from 1892 until his 

 death last April, bequeathed to the university 

 the sum~of £1,000. By resolution of the coun- 

 cil, the money has been added to the special 

 fund for the encouragement of medical re- 

 search. 



At the University of California work has be- 

 gun on a laboratory for the Citrus Experiment 

 Station at Riverside, funds for this building 

 and for the site on which it stands having 

 been appropriated by the last legislature. 

 The new laboratory will be thoroughly 

 equipped, and will become headquarters for 

 some of the work for advancing the interests 

 of the orange and lemon industries hereto- 

 fore carried on by the university at Whit- 

 tier. The United States Department of 

 AgTiculture will cooperate with the univer- 

 sity at Riverside, stationing there agricul- 

 tural experts to study the problems of the 

 citrus industry. Professor J. Eliot Coit has 

 been appointed director of the laboratory. 



Nature states that the establishment of the 

 new university in^ western: Australia is pro- 

 gressing satisfactorily, and the senate is 

 open to receive applications for the filling of 

 eight professorial chairs. Parliament has 



