OCTOBEB 11, 1907] 



SCIENCE 



487 



years, the percentage of the world's total coal 

 produced by the United States has increased 

 from 14.32 to 37, and this country now stands 

 far in the lead of the world's coal producers. 

 It has been only eight years since the United 

 States supplanted Great Britain as the lead- 

 ing coal producer, yet the increase in this 

 country has been so enormous that Great 

 Britain can no longer be classed as a com- 

 petitor. In 1906 the United States produced 

 43.7 per cent, more coal than Great Britain 

 and 85 per cent, more than Germany. Ex- 

 clusive of Great Britain the United States in 

 1906 produced more coal than all the other 

 countries of the world combined. It may also 

 be noted that more than 96 per cent, of the 

 world's production of coal is mined in coun- 

 tries lying north of the equator, the countries 

 south of the line contributing less than 20,- 

 000,000 tons annually. 



The Allahabad Pioneer Mail, as quoted in 

 Nature, states that the programs of work of 

 the various scientific departments for the cur- 

 rent year, as ^settled by the Indian Board of 

 Scientific Advice, have been published. The 

 following points are of general interest: (1) 

 Schemes have been completed for the estab- 

 . lishment of a central research station and 

 agricultural colleges at Poona, Lyallpur, 

 Cawnpor, Bhagalpur, Coimbatore, Nagpur and 

 Mandalay, and a stafl: of three European spe- 

 cialists has been sanctioned for each; (2) new 

 agricultural stations are to be started (a) at 

 Aligarh for the improvement of cotton, (h) 

 at Partabgarh for the study of rice and sugar- 

 cane, (c) at JuUundur, (d) at Bassein, and 

 (e) at Bhagalpur and Bankipur (Bengal). 

 The special investigations connected with the 

 improvement of Indian cottons and wheats 

 will be continued, but the scheme for the im- 

 provement of Indian tobacco will largely re- 

 main in abeyance until the appointment of a 

 specialist for this purpose. The study of 

 sugar-cane diseases and of practical measures 

 for the suppression of cotton boll-worm in the 

 Punjab will also be continued. The lead 

 mines of the southern Shan States, the tin 

 deposits in Mergui, Tavoy and Karenni, the 

 oil beds in the Irrawaddy Valley and the 



Arakan districts, the volcano of Popa in the 

 Myingyan district, Burma, the copper beds of 

 Singhbhum, and the manganese mines in the 

 central provinces, are all to be the subject of 

 geological investigation. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS 



By the will of the late D. Willis James, of 

 New York City, the sum of one million dollars 

 divided into ten portions of $100,000 each, is 

 bequeathed to educational and charitable in- 

 stitutions, the former being: Columbia Uni- 

 versity, Tale University, Amherst College, 

 Union Theological Seminary, Cooper Union 

 and the Hampden Institute. 



Miss Anna T. Jeanes has bequeathed prac- 

 tically all her estate, said to be of the value 

 of $5,000,000, for public purposes, including 

 the establishment of a hospital. A bequest of 

 certain property, estimated to be between 

 $500,000 and $3,000,000 in value, has been be- 

 queathed to Swarthmore College on condition 

 that it abandon intercollegiate sports. A 

 committee of the board of managers has been 

 appointed to report on the question. 



The buildings of the Barnard Medical Col- 

 lege and the Centenary Hospital, St. Louis, 

 valued at $300,000, have been transferred to 

 the University of Missouri, which expects to 

 provide the two final years in medicine at St. 

 Louis, after 1908. 



A CABLEGRAM from Tientsien states that an 

 imperial edict decrees compulsory education 

 for everybody in China, and adds, further- 

 more, that the people are to be taught the 

 principles of constitutional government, in 

 order that they may be better fitted to elect 

 representatives when a parliament is created. 

 The throne expresses anxiety to establish par- 

 liamentary institutions, but adds that the suc- 

 cess thereof depends upon the education and 

 knowledge possessed by those called upon to 

 govern. 



A NEW university library, to cost one million 

 Marks, will be erected in Tiibingen. 



The name of the high school in Miinster 

 was changed on August 22, to " Wilhelms 

 Westfalian University." A school of medi- 

 cine will be established. 



