838 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVII. No. 



Peruvian government the adoption of eastern 

 standard, or 75th meridian, time for the whole 

 of Peru. 



Eight new drainage districts have been or- 

 ganized in the southeastern part of Wisconsin 

 by the soils department of the state university 

 experiment station. This is a particularly 

 favorable season for this reclamation work, 

 since, owing to the dry weather of last fall, 

 the marshes of the central and southern part 

 of the state are much drier than usual. Pro- 

 fessor A. R. Whitson, of the university soils 

 department, has recently investigated three of 

 these districts and found that they can be re- 

 claimed successfully and profitably by drain- 

 age. The largest of these — the Norway and 

 Dover district in Eacine County — is a tract 

 of 17,000 acres of shallow muck underlaid with 

 clay. This land, which is now of little value, 

 as only wild grass can be cut on it once in 

 two or three years, will unquestionably show 

 a high degree of fertility after drainage, when 

 hay, com and other farm crops will be grown. 



The Yale Alumni Weekly states that the 

 increased use of the Peabody Museum, owing 

 to the recent Sunday opening, and the cramped 

 space for exhibiting the large specimens and 

 the increasingly large collections have directed 

 attention to the plan for future enlargement. 

 A design for the completed building, drawn 

 by the architect of the wing already erected, 

 J. Cleveland Cady, of New York City, was 

 approved by the late Professor O. C. Marsh, 

 and the drawing now hangs on the walls of 

 one of the office rooms on the second floor of 

 the museum. It represents a large central 

 hall with a wing exactly like the present struc- 

 ture estending down to Library Street. The 

 cost of the central hall alone is estimated at 

 about $300,000, and the accumulated building 

 fund for the purpose is reported at about 

 $160,000. The architect recently communi- 

 cated with Treasurer McClung with reference 

 to submitting revised plans for the completed 

 museum to meet present needs. Nothing defi- 

 nite has been done in regard to the plans and 

 it is possible that when an adequate museum 

 is erected it may be on the university's new 

 property to the north of the present campuses. 



One of the most important economic move- 

 ments of the day about which the general pub- 

 lic has yet learned little is the concerted action 

 of owners of timber in different parts of the 

 country in organizing associations to protect 

 their holdings from fire. In the Pacific north- 

 west, the Washington Forest Fire Association 

 has just elected officers at Seattle and begun 

 work for the year with 3,000,000 acres under 

 its care. The plans include a system of patrol 

 by rangers resembling the work done by the 

 United States Forest Service in guarding 

 against and extinguishing fires. Organiza- 

 tions of similar kind and for a like purpose 

 are at work in Oregon and Idaho. In the 

 latter state, a portion of the expense is borne 

 by taxation and paid from the state treasury. 

 A western railroad company which holds large 

 tracts of timber has taken steps to guard its 

 property from fire, and during the short time 

 that its plans have been in operation, it has 

 met with most encouraging success. Similar 

 work is being done on the other side of the 

 continent. Forest owners in Maine have gone 

 to work in the same systematic way to control 

 the forests' great enemy, fire. Like organiza- 

 tions are found in other parts of the country, 

 showing how fully it is now realized that pro- 

 tection against fire is of the greatest impor- 

 tance. It is safe to say that fires in this 

 country have destroyed more timber than lum- 

 bermen have cut. When timber was abundant, 

 the waste passed almost unnoticed, but now 

 that a scarcity is at hand and an actual wood 

 famine threatens in the near future, the own- 

 ers of forest lands are waking up and taking 

 action to save what is left. 



The lectureship on physic founded at St. 

 John's College, Cambridge, by Thomas Linacre 

 in 1515 has hitherto been held for a term of 

 years. It is now, as we learn from The 

 British Medical Journal, converted into an 

 annual office, and every year some person of 

 eminence will be asked to deliver one public 

 lecture in the Easter term. This ancient lec- 

 tureship has been held in the past by many 

 distinguished men ; among them were William 

 Barondale, Thomas Gisborne and Sir Thomas 

 Watson, all presidents of the Royal College of 



