August 26, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



273 



According to foreign journals a Berlin in- 

 ventor, Mr. Hugo Gantke, has recently de- 

 signed a simple device for the felling of trees. 

 The trunks are cut by the friction of a steel 

 wire about one millimeter in diameter, which, 

 as demonstrated by practical tests, is able to 

 cut through a tree of about 20 inches (50 cm.) 

 in thickness in sis minutes. The wire, which 

 is carried to and fro by an electric motor, is 

 heated by friction on the tree to such an ex- 

 tent as to burn through the timber, the result 

 being a cut which is both smoother and 

 cleaner than that effected by a saw. The wire 

 will work satisfactorily on the thickest trees 

 without the insertion of wedges into the cut, 

 and trees may be cut immediately above or 

 below the ground. In the latter ease the stump 

 may be left safely in the soil. The motor which 

 actuates the wire is installed outside of the 

 range affected by the fall of the tree, and 

 when electricity is not already available it can 

 be generated by a transportable power plant, 

 consisting of a 10-horse power petrol motor 

 and dynamo, which are left at the entrance 

 to the forest during the felling operations. 

 By this method large tropical trees up to 10 

 feet in diameter can be cut and felled by a 

 single operator, a considerable advantage 

 being the absence of any waste in the timber. 



VNIVESSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS 



Ground has been broken for the library 

 building at the University of Chicago, which 

 is to serve as a memorial to the late President 

 William Eainey Harper. 



Ground has been broken for the addition to 

 Morse Hall, the chemical laboratory of Cor- 

 nell University, the cost of which was pro- 

 vided for by Mr. Andrew Carnegie's recent 

 gift of $50,000. 



The cornerstone has been laid of the new 

 building at Columbia University, in which 

 the departments of the faculty of philosophy 

 are to have their rooms. 



Liverpool University benefits under the 

 will of Mr. T. S. Timmis to the extent of 

 £10,000 to endow a cancer research laboratory. 



We learn from the New York Medical 

 Record that at the University of Pennsyl- 



vania with the opening of the coming fall ses- 

 sion an elective course in tropical medicine 

 will be ofl'ered under the immediate charge of 

 Dr. Allen J. Smith, in conjunction with Dr. 

 A. C. Abbott, Dr. G. E. de Schweinitz, Dr. 

 William Pepper, Dr. W. H. Hartzell and Dr. 

 H. H. Jacobs. The course will comprise in- 

 struction in medical climatology and geog- 

 raphy, the hygiene of ships and of the tropics, 

 protozoology, anthropology, helminthology, 

 general medical pathology, diseases of the eye 

 and of the skin, surgical diseases common to 

 the tropics, pathology of tropical diseases, and 

 systematic and clinical tropical medicine. 



Dr. John Henry MacCracken has been 

 designated as acting chancellor of New York 

 University, the appointment to take effect on 

 the resignation of his father. Dr. Henry M. 

 MacCracken next month. 



Dr. L. C. Karpinski has been promoted to 

 an assistant professorship of mathematics at 

 the University of Michigan. He will give a 

 course in the history of mathematics. 



Dr. Francis M. Slack, director of the bac- 

 teriological laboratory of the Boston Health 

 Department, has accepted an instructorship 

 in bacteriology in the Kansas State College. 



Charles S. Wilson has been promoted to a 

 professorship of pomology at Cornell Univer- 

 sity. 



Dr. Gottlieb Haberlandt, professor of bot- 

 any at Gratz, has been called to Berlin. 



Dr. a. Gilbert, professor of therapeutics at 

 the Paris College of Medicine, has been ap- 

 pointed professor of clinical medicine to suc- 

 ceed Dr. Dieulafov. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE 



SCHMIEDEKNECHT ON THE PARASITIC HYMEN- 



OPTERA of THE FAMILY CHALCIDIDiE 



In the ninety-seventh fascicle of Wytsman's 

 " Genera Insectorum '" Dr. Otto Scluniede- 

 kneeht gives a treatment of the hymenopterous 



' "Genera Insectorum," dirigfe par P. Wytsman, 

 Bruxelles, 97"' fascicule, Hymenoptera, family 

 Chaleididse, by Professor Dr. Otto Sehmiedeknecht, 

 550 pages, 8 plates, 1909. (Price, 136 francs, or 

 $27.20.) 



