558 
land for the Adirondack preserve and $50,000 
for the Catskill Mountains preserve. 
THE Legislature of New Hampshire has re- 
jected two bills for the preservation of the 
State forests. One bill provided for the re- 
striction of lumber cutting to trees of a pre- 
seribed size. The other bill authorized a loan 
of $1,000,000 for the purchase of forest lands 
and the establishment of a forest reserve in the 
State. 
AT the last monthly meeting of the Zoological 
Society of London, it was stated that there had 
been 118 additions to the Society’s menagerie 
during the month of February, amongst which 
special attention was directed to an August 
amazon (Chrysotis augusta) from Dominica. 
Upon one previous occasion only had a speci- 
men of this fine bird been received at the 
Society’s gardens—namely, on May 12, 1865. 
The additions also included a Guinea fowl 
(Numida meleagris ?) from Rabat, Morocco, pre- 
sented to the Society by Mr. G. E. Neroutsos, 
British Vice-Consul at that port. The Council 
announced to the meeting that the King had 
been pleased to become patron of the Society in 
succession to the late Queen Victoria. 
In order to further laboratory instruction of 
large classes of students in physiology, Pro- 
fessor W. T. Porter, director of the physiological 
department in the Harvard Medical School, will 
undertake to provide reliable physiological ap- 
paratus constructed under his personal super- 
vision. It is expected that the improvements 
suggested by the daily experience of the Har- 
yard Laboratory will thus be made directly avail- 
able to others; and it is hoped that by this 
arrangement the quality of physiological appar- 
atus for general use will be improved and the 
price sensibly diminished. All communications 
should be addressed to Professor W. T. Porter, 
688 Boylston Street, Boston, Mass. 
THE following details are given in The For- 
ester regarding the Act passed by the Pennsyl- 
vania Legislature which raises the Division of 
Forestry of the State’s Department of Agricul- 
ture to the position of a Department of For- 
estry. In addition to the new importance 
which is thus given to the forest service of the 
State, the efficiency and strength of its organ- 
SCIENCE. 
[N. 8S. Vou. XIII. No. 327. 
ization is much increased by the Act. The de- 
partment is to consist of a Commissioner of 
Forestry, and four others. These shall also 
constitute the State Forestry Reservation Com- 
mission. The commissioner is to hold office for 
four years and so are his fellow members of the 
Reservation Commission ; they are not all to be 
appointed at the same time, however, and their 
terms of office so overlap that the Board will 
always have two members of two years’ ex- 
perience. The Reservation Commission is em- 
powered to buy lands for the forest reserve, to 
manage them, to sell timber and to make 
contracts for the mining of any valuable 
minerals which may be found in them. The 
Act further specifies that the Commissioner 
of Forestry shall be the president and exec- 
utive officer of the Forestry Reservation Com- 
mission, and also superintendent of the State 
Forestry Reservation, and shall have im- 
mediate control, under the direction of the Com- 
mission, of all forest lands belonging to the 
Commonwealth. He is empowered to execute 
all rules adopted by the Commission for 
the enforcement of laws designed to pro- 
tect the forest from fire and depredation, 
and is also empowered to employ detective 
service and to make arrests. It is also pro- 
vided in this Act that the kindling of fire 
on a forest reservation, except in accordance 
with the rules and regulations of the Commis- 
sion, shall be a misdemeanor, for which the 
penalty is a fine of not less than one hundred 
dollars, or more than five hundred. Governor 
Stone has appointed, as we have already noted, 
Dr. J. T. Rothrock as Commissioner. 
AT the annual general meeting of the Insti- 
tution of Mechanical Engineers, London, Mr. 
W. H. Man was elected president, Mr. A. Keen, 
Mr. T. Hurry Riches and Mr. Bryan Donkin, 
vice-presidents and Sir J. Wolfe-Barry, Mr. W. 
Dean, Mr. H. G. Harris, Mr. A. Tannett- 
Walker and Sir W. T. Lewis, new members 
of the council. The annual report, as we 
learn from the Times, stated that at the 
end of 1900 the number in all classes on 
the roll of the institution was 3,165, a net 
gain of 243 members as compared with the 
number on the roll at the end of the previous 
year. The total revenue for 1900 was £9,005 
