584 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIX. No. 1277 



1. The station accepts College of Hawaii 

 students in sugar technology, for a 2-3-month 

 period during the summer, or for a 4-month 

 period during the winter and spring. These 

 students serve in the capacity of assistants to 

 the field research men of the station. 



2. These student assistants are appointed by 

 the college. The college receives reports from 

 the students, but publication rests with the 

 station director. 



3. The station pays each student assistant 

 $45.00 per month, and pays actual transporta- 

 tion expenses while traveling on station work. 



4. The program of work for the student as- 

 sistants is of a practical nature, but with due 

 regard to the educational features involved. 

 The president of the college cooperates in ar- 

 ranging the program. 



Under the provisions of this agreement, 

 College of Hawaii students in sugar technology 

 have remarkable apportunities and facilities 

 for first hand familiarity with Hawaii's sugar 

 industry. 



Vaughan MacCaughky 



College op Hawaii 



SCIENTIFIC EVENTS 



LOAN EXHIBITION OF EARLY SCIENTIFIC 

 INSTRUMENTS AT OXFORD 



The Classical Association held its annual 

 meeting at Oxford on May 16-17, and Sir 

 William Osier delivered the presidential ad- 

 dress on " The Old Humanity and the New 

 Science." We learn from Nature that on 

 May 16 Sir William opened a loan exhibition 

 of instruments and manuscripts illustrating 

 the scientific history of Oxford from the four- 

 teenth to the eighteenth century. The greater 

 part of the instruments now sJiown have never 

 been publicly exhibited before. They have 

 been unearthed in cupboards and comers of 

 libraries of colleges and university depart- 

 ments. They are, for the most part, in their 

 original state and of corresponding historic 

 value. 



The two earliest dated Persian and Moorish 

 astrolabes, a.d. 987 and a.d. 1067, lent by Mr. 

 Lewis Evans, form a worthy introduction to 

 a wonderful series of instruments lent by 



Merton College. One of these is traditionally 

 associated with Chaucer, and another of the 

 Saphea type is considered by Mr. Gunther to 

 have been the instrument left by Simon 

 Bredon eitlier to the college or to its great 

 astronomer, Eede, early in the fourteenth cen- 

 tury. The energies of these early astronomrs 

 were largely directed to the preparation of 

 astronomical tables, which had a wide circu- 

 lation, and Oxford was regarded very much as 

 Greenwich is now. 



The later astronomical exhibits illustrate 

 the instrumental equipment of the Earl of 

 Orrery, who must have been acquainted with 

 the first members of the Eoyal Society. Many 

 of his instruments are still in the state in 

 which he left them to Christ Church. His 

 telescopes of 8 feet, 9 feet and 12 feet focal 

 length, with many-draw vellum tubes and 

 lignum vitae lens-mounts by Marshall and 

 Wilson, form a imique series. 



There is also a Marshall microscope of 1603 

 in excellent condition, as well as some magnifi- 

 cent planetaria and other astronomical models 

 by Rowley, the maker of the original Orrerv. 



The slide-rule of 1654 in the South Ken- 

 sington Museum, must now yield to an instru- 

 ment lent by St. John's College, dated 1635. 

 It is in the form of a brass disc 1 foot 6 inches 

 in diameter engraved with Oughtred's circles 

 of proportion. Would space permit, the series 

 of volvelles or calculating discs showing the 

 age of the moon from manuscripts of the four- 

 teenth and fifteenth centuries, and some early 

 surveying instruments, are worthy of more 

 particular description, as well as many other 

 treasures now shown to the public for the first 

 time. A printed catalogue of the principal 

 exhibits, prepared by Mr. Gunther, of Mag- 

 dalen College, is published by the Clarendon 

 Press. 



A NATIONAL POLICY OF FOREST 

 PRESERVATION 



The first of a series of regional conferences 

 planned to consider special conditions in vari- 

 ous sections of the country, so that a compre- 

 hensive national policy of forest preservation 

 may be formed, was held May 20 in the United 

 States Department of Agriculture. After for- 



