JtriT 10, 1914] 



SCIENCE 



63 



and Baur, is Berlin N. 4, Invalidenstr. 42, 

 Kgl. Landwirtsch. Hochseliule. 



At a meeting of tlie American College of 

 Surgeons held in Philadelphia under the presi- 

 dency of Dr. J. M. T. Finney, of Baltimore, 

 on June 22, attended by eight hundred mem- 

 bers, over $100,000 was subscribed toward an 

 endowment fund for the establishment in 

 Washington, D. C, of a permanent home for 

 the institution. One thousand one hundred 

 fellowships were conferred, bringing the total 

 membership up to over three thousand. 



The advisory committee of the Tropical 

 Diseases Eesearch Fund (British Colonial 

 OfSce) has granted £100 as a stipend for a 

 helminthologist to conduct research work in 

 the Quick Laboratory, University of Cam- 

 bridge, and has contributed £300 with which 

 to send Mr. E. Hindle, B.A., on an expedition 

 to East Africa. Sir Dorabji J. Tata has con- 

 tributed £250, and Mr. P. A. Molteno and 

 Mrs. Molteno £400, towards the research work 

 at the Quick Laboratory. 



A COOPERATIVE fire agreement which has 

 been entered into between the U. S. Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture and the state of Michi- 

 gan provides for an expenditure by the gov- 

 ernment of not to exceed $5,000 a year toward 

 meeting the exjjenses of forest fire protection 

 in Michigan. This form of cooperation be- 

 tween the government and the state is made 

 possible by a law which congress passed in 

 1911, and which has already been taken ad- 

 vantage of by the states of Maine, New Hamp- 

 shire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, 

 New York, New Jersey, Maryland, West Vir- 

 ginia, Kentucky, Wisconsin, Minnesota, South 

 Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Washington and 

 Oregon. The law, besides providing for the 

 purchase by the government of lands on the 

 headwaters of navigable rivers for the purpose 

 of creating national forests to protect these 

 rivers, appropriated $200,000 which the secre- 

 tary of agriculture might expend to protect 

 similar lands in state or private ownership 

 from fire, in cooperation with the states. It 

 was provided in the law that the federal ex- 

 penditures in any state should not exceed the 



amount spent by the state itself in the co- 

 operative work. Provision for continuance of 

 the work in the fiscal year which began July 1 

 has been made by an appropriation of $100,- 

 000 for the year. The original appropriation 

 of $200,000 was available until expended, and 

 with a supplementary $75,000 has carried the 

 work to the present time. 



The most notable progress yet recorded in 

 the chemical treatment of timber to prevent 

 decay was made in 1913, according to a re- 

 port recently issued by the American Wood 

 Preservers' Association in cooperation with the 

 forest service of the department of agriculture. 

 The report states that 93 wood-preserving 

 plants in 1913 consumed over 108 million 

 gallons of creosote oil, 26 million pounds of 

 dry zinc chloride, and nearly 4 million gallons 

 of other liquid preservatives. With these the 

 plants treated over 153 million cubic feet of 

 timber, or about 23 per cent, more than in 

 1912. The output from additional plants un-- 

 recorded would increase the totals given. 

 Impregnation of wood with oils and chemicals 

 to increase its resistance to decay and insect 

 attack, the report goes on to say, is an indus- 

 try which has become important in the United 

 States only in recent years. In Great Britain 

 and most of the European countries practi- 

 cally every wooden cross-tie and telephone or 

 telegraph pole receives preservative treatment. 

 In the United States less than 30 per cent, 

 of the 135 million cross-ties annually con- 

 sumed are treated, and the proper treatment 

 of an annual consumption of 4 million poles 

 may be said to, have scarcely commenced. 

 Real progress in the United States dates from 

 1832, when the Kyanizing process, using 

 bichlorides of mercury, was developed. In 

 1837 two other processes were introduced, the 

 Burnett process using zinc chloride, and the 

 Bethel process using coal tar creosote. These 

 last processes are very largely in use to-day. 

 The idea of timber preservation at first made 

 very slow growth in this country, on account 

 of the large supply of cheap and durable 

 timbers and the general disregard shown to- 

 ward economy in the use of natural resources. 

 In 1885 there were only three pressure plants 



