924 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVI. No. 678 



will be known as the Sarah Berliner Research 

 Tellowship for Women. The award will be 

 made by a committee of women, of which 

 Mrs. Christine Ladd Franklin, of Baltimore, 

 is to be the chairman. 



English exchanges state that the annual 

 meeting of the British Science Guild will be 

 held at the Mansion-house, January 15. The 

 Lord Mayor has consented to preside and to 

 become one of the vice-presidents of the guild. 

 It is hoped that Mr. Haldane, the president of 

 the gTiild, and others will address the meeting. 

 Steps are being taken by the guild to bring 

 the proposals for legislation for the prevention 

 of the pollution of rivers before many socie- 

 ties and local bodies. 



A CHEMICAL laboratory has recently been 

 established at Tananarivo in Madagascar. 

 Besides purely scientific researches, it is in- 

 tended for the analysis of foodstuffs and other 

 purposes of practical importance. 



The Journal of the American Medical As- 

 sociation states that the International Medi- 

 cal Association of Mexico, which was to have 

 met at Monterey in November for its third 

 annual congress, has been postponed until 

 January 23-25, on account of the prevalence 

 of dengue fever at Monterey. This associa- 

 tion combines English-speaking and Spanish- 

 speaking physicians on an equal footing, the 

 programs and summaries being printed in 

 both languages, the speakers using their 

 mother tongue. Dr. J. S. Steele of Monterey, 

 is the secretary of the congress, and he states 

 that unusual interest has been manifested in 

 the meeting this year. 



At a meeting of the commonwealth cabinet 

 at Melbourne, on December 2, the postmaster 

 general announced his decision to call for 

 tenders for wireless telegraphy installations at 

 some half dozen places round Australia, in- 

 cluding' King Island, Tasmania, Rottnest 

 Island, some convenient center on the north- 

 ern coast. Port Moresby, and Yorke Peninsula. 

 Tenderers are to sell their Australian rights 

 to the commonwealth. Parliament has de- 

 cided not to allow directly or indirectly the 

 establishment of a private monopoly. The 

 installations will be capable of receiving mes- 



sages from passing steamers equipped with 

 any of the recognized systems. 



In the reorganization of the Bureau of 

 Forestry, Philippine Islands, Major George P. 

 Ahern, director, the work of the field force 

 has been placed in two divisions, viz., the 

 Division of Forest Administration, in charge 

 of Forester H. D. Everett, and the Division 

 of Forest Investigation, in charge of Forester 

 H. N. Whitford. As the name implies, the 

 Division of Forest Administration is in charge 

 of all administrative work of the bureau, such 

 as granting licenses, inspection of cuttings, 

 applications for homesteads, etc. Practically 

 all of the timber land of the Philippine 

 Islands is government property, of which this 

 division is the guardian. The work of the 

 Division of Forest Investigation is to discover 

 the forest resources of the islands, and to 

 bring this information to the notice of the 

 public. A detailed system of mapping has 

 been inaugurated, which shows areas of com- 

 mercial and non-commercial forest, grass and 

 agricultviral lands. Considerable portions of 

 the islands have already been mapped, and the 

 work is being pushed as rapidly as possible. 

 Special tracts of land are being studied in 

 detail for working plans, and botanical collec- 

 tions, including both herbarium and wood 

 specimens are being made. Herbarium sheets 

 show altogether 1,109 tree species in the 

 islands. It is probable that with further in- 

 vestigation, this number will be increased to 

 1,600 or 1,800. The museum now contains 

 about 3,500 wood specimens, representing 

 nearly 350 different species, and including all 

 of the principal timbers. It is hoped that 

 within a few years the bureau will be able to 

 show by maps the different types of vegetation 

 of the islands; to locate the different tracts 

 of timber, with an estimate of the stand, etc. ; 

 to know the silvicultural habits of the prin- 

 cipal timber trees (nearly 100) ; and to in- 

 crease the knowledge in general of the tropical 

 forests of the Philippine Islands. 



Sir William Eamsay gave the Aldred lec- 

 ture before the Society of Arts on December 

 11, his subject being " The Emanation given 

 off by Eadium." According to the abstract 



