986 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXI. No. 



remarkable specimens in the collection are 

 the wooden portrait statues of past rulers, 

 which throw a new light on savage art in 

 Africa. Next in importance are a splendid 

 carved throne of the paramount chiefs, 

 wooden caskets and cups, and specimens of 

 remarkable textiles resembling velvet, made 

 from the fiber of the upper skin of the palm 

 leaf (raphia). This collection was made be- 

 fore the almost complete disappearance of 

 native art work due to the importation of 

 cheap European productions. 



Courses in wood technology and the me- 

 chanical engineering- of wood manufacturing 

 plants are to be added to the curriculum of 

 the University of Wisconsin for the coming 

 year, the college of engineering cooperating 

 with the new U. S. forest products laboratory 

 in the instruction. The courses are to be 

 primarily of a technical nature, arranged es- 

 pecially to meet the needs of students in the 

 mechanical and chemical engineering courses 

 who wish to prepare themselves for positions 

 in the wood manufacturing industries. Three 

 phases of the forest utilization problem are to 

 be dealt with in these courses, including a 

 study of the physical and chemical proper- 

 ties of wood, of the utilization of such wood 

 products as are now wasted and the preserva- 

 tion of timber, and of engineering operations 

 of manufacturing and preservative processes. 

 Four courses in wood technology, including 

 work in wood distillation, wood preservation, 

 the chemical constituents of wood, and the 

 physical properties of wood, are to be given 

 by various members of the staff of twenty 

 government experts at the laboratory. In ad- 

 dition there are to be lectures and demonstra- 

 tions of the different operations in logging and 

 wood manufacturing machinery, at the college 

 of engineering, by Professor Eobert McArdle 

 Keown, of the department of machine design. 

 In the course on the properties of wood, 

 which will be given the first semester, the ele- 

 mentary structure of wood of various species 

 will be studied, and the relation of its physi- 

 cal properties and its uses in the arts and 

 industries. Lectures and demonstrations will 

 also be given regarding methods of testing 



and conditioning wood. The course in con- 

 stituents and fibers of wood, to be given the 

 same semester, will deal with the chemical 

 construction, lignoceric materials and fibers 

 with their bearing on industrial and art uses 

 of wood. The utilization of the waste in the 

 lumber industry will be the special aim of the 

 study of the principles, processes and products 

 of hardwood and softwood distillation in the 

 course in wood distillation to be given the 

 second semester. The work in wood preser- 

 vation will cover the structure and properties 

 of different kinds of timber as regards their 

 resistance to destructive agencies and condi- 

 tions of deterioration. Both surface applica- 

 tions and antiseptic impregnation . will be 

 tested in the study of preservative processes, 

 when the theory and effect of pressure in 

 these treatments will also be considered. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS 

 Horace Eussell, '65, president of the Dart- 

 mouth Alumni Association, has made a con- 

 ditional gift of $10,000 to Dartmouth College 

 toward an endowment fund to be used for the 

 early increase of salaries of full professors, 

 provided that additional sums can be raised to 

 make the amount $100,000. 



At the commencement exercises of tBe Uni- 

 versity of Pittsburgh, on June 15, a School 

 of Engineering was dedicated, the principal 

 address being made by E. K. Morse, president 

 of the Engineers Society of Western Pennsyl- 

 vania. At the same time the cornerstone of 

 the building for the School of Medicine was 

 laid, an address being given by Dr. James 

 Ewing, of the Cornell Medical School. 



At Stanford University Dr. Albert C. Craw- 

 ford, of the Bureau of Animal Industry, has 

 been appointed professor of pharmacology, and 

 Dr. Hans Zinsser, of Columbfa University, has 

 been appointed associate professor in charge 

 of bacteriology. 



At the University of Illinois Mr. Frank C. 

 Becht, of the University of Chicago, has been 

 ■ appointed acting head of the department of 

 physiology in place of Dr. J. H. McClellan, 

 who resigns to complete his medical studies. 



