OCIOBEE 12, 1900.] 



SCIENCE. 



575 



from the State Legislature an appropriation of 

 $50,000 to be used in establishing in Chicago 

 and in other cities State laboratories for the 

 teaching of the sciences of physics, chemis- 

 try, bacteriology, biology and microscopy, and 

 for extension courses throughout the State in 

 sanitary and agricultural sciences. It is in- 

 tended that the laboratories shall be open in 

 the evenings to enable bread-winners to pro- 

 cure a higher education than they are able to 

 get now. 



It is reported that, upon the recommendation 

 of the Department of War the Department of 

 Agriculture is preparing an order setting apart 

 as forest reserves the island of Kombolin, north 

 of the island of Panay ; also the island of 

 Pauitaui, which is one of the extreme group of 

 the Jolo Islands. Officers of the army who 

 have been looking over the islands have found 

 that these are perhaps the richest islands in the 

 world for rubber trees, and it is the intention 

 of the Washington authorities to have the trees 

 preserved and cared for, especially as some 

 fears lately have been expressed that the rubber 

 supply may become exhausted. 



The International Eailway Congress, held 

 this year at Paris, will meet in 1901, at Wash- 

 ington, D.C. At the Paris meeting M. Bandin, 

 French Minister of Public Works, paid a high 

 tribute to the advanced state of railway con- 

 struction and management in the United States, 

 saying that all the later improvements adopted 

 in Europe came from America. European 

 countries, he said, ought to realize that in rail- 

 way improvements they are behind the United 

 States and should take constant lessons from its 

 methods. 



It is somewhat remarkable that while there 

 are about 18,000 miles of electric trolley lines 

 in the United States there are only about 300 

 miles in Great Britain and Irelaud. It might 

 be supposed that the more dense population of 

 the British Isles would especially support such 

 lines. Eecent financial conditions indicate that 

 if an extension of the trolley lines in Great 

 Britain is not soon undertaken by citizens of 

 that country the field will be occupied by 

 American engineers and capitalists. 



A NEW transatlantic liner of unequalled di- 



mensions is to be built by Kewland & Wolflf, of 

 Belfast, Ireland, for the Hamburg-American 

 line. According to the press dispatches the 

 new ship will be 750 feet long and 76 feet beam 

 and will have accommodations for 2,000 pas- 

 sengers and 12,000 tons of cargo. The speed 

 will be 18 knots, and the most improved con- 

 struction will be used throughout. The main 

 dimensions of the Oceanic, at present the largest 

 vessel, are : length 70i feet and beam 68 feet 

 4i inches. The new Hamburg- American ship 

 is to be completed in 1903. 



The International Congress of Applied 

 Chemistry was held in Paris during the last 

 week of July, under the presidency of M. 

 Moissan. There were as we have already 

 stated ten sections : analytical chemistry, chem- 

 ical industry of inorganic products, metallurgy, 

 mines and explosives, chemical industry of or- 

 ganic products, the sugar industry, chemical 

 industry of fermentation, agricultural chem- 

 istry, hygiene, food analysis, medical and 

 pharmaceutical chemistry, photography and 

 electrochemisty. Nature reports that more 

 than two hundred papers were read and dis- 

 cussed, and numerous resolutions were passed, 

 of which the following were the most important. 

 In view of the great inconvenience caused com- 

 mercially by uncertainty in the atomic weights 

 used by analytical chemists, the congress, hop- 

 ing that the adoption of the atomic weight of 

 oxygen as a base (O = 16) would lead to a 

 greater certainty and to a simplification in the 

 calculation of atomic weights, agreed to work 

 in unison with the International Commission 

 on atomic weights. It further suggested the 

 necessity for an International Commission for 

 fixing methods and coefficients of analysis in 

 commercial work. Committees were also ap- 

 pointed to deal with questions of indicators in 

 volumetric work, analysis of manures, potash 

 estimation, and the use of sulphurous acid in 

 wine. In the second section the chief questions 

 dealt with were the determination of high tem- 

 peratures, construction of glass and porcelain 

 furnaces, the manufacture of sulphuric acid, 

 and of barium and hydrogen peroxides. In the 

 section of metallurgy, mines and explosives, 

 papers were read dealing with the sampling of 

 minerals, the constitution of iron and steel, the 



