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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLII. No. 1080 



struction act, $25,000 for the National Biolog- 

 ical Laboratory, $20,000 to assist in the main- 

 tenance of the International Institute of Agri- 

 culture, $20,000 for entomology, $15,000 for 

 publications, and $70,000 for exhibits, repairs, 

 etc. A further $900,000 is allotted under the 

 agricultural-instruction act. The new build- 

 ing at the Ontario Veterinary College is now 

 in use. It is a five-story brick structure with 

 134-foot frontage and 900,000 cu. ft. capacity, 

 and cost about $250,000. It contains several 

 large laboratories, an assembly room seating 

 500, an infirmary for horses, offices, etc. At 

 the Nova Scotia Agricultural College, a new 

 science building 130 by 50 feet, with labora- 

 tories for chemistry, soil physics, entomology, 

 plant diseases and home economics, an as- 

 sembly hall seating 250, offices, classrooms, 

 etc., is nearing completion. 



The Forest Service has sent a warning 

 that more than half of the forest fires in the 

 United States are due to carelessness or other 

 preventable causes, starting from campers, 

 railroad locomotives, brush burning, incen- 

 diaries and sawmills. This statement is based 

 on an analysis of statistics compiled from the 

 forest records of the last season, when more 

 than 7,000 fires were reported on national for- 

 ests alone and approximately 10,000 on state 

 and private holdings in the eighteen states 

 which received federal cooperation in fire 

 protection under the Weeks law, namely, 

 Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachu- 

 setts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, 

 Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, Michi- 

 gan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, 

 Montana, Idaho, Washington and Oregon. 

 Forest fires destroy millions of dollars' worth 

 of timber and other property every year, and 

 in some years cause considerable loss of life. 

 It has been estimated from the best informa- 

 tion obtainable that forest fires last year 

 burned over an area of approximately 6,000,000 

 acres with a total loss of at least $9,500,000. 



Nature states that the Ipswich Museum has 

 for some time past made a very strong fea- 

 ture of the department of prehistoric archeol- 

 ogy, and has collected extensively from the 

 uniquely rich district of East Suffolk. The mu- 



seum collections now include a large and rep- 

 resentative series of pre-Paleolithic and Paleo- 

 lithic flint implements, and also numerous ex- 

 amples of specimens referable to the later Cave 

 and Neolithic periods. Among the later addi- 

 tions may be noted a large series of imple- 

 ments, bones, etc., from the Grimes Graves 

 flint mines, Mousteir flints from Baker's Hole 

 pit in the Thames Valley, and implements of 

 different ages presented by Dr. A. E. Peake 

 and Eev. H. G. O. Kendall. The museum au- 

 thorities have just purchased the entire series 

 of local specimens, and the Paleolithic imple- 

 ments from the Dovercourt gravels collected 

 by the late Lieutenant-Colonel Underwood, of 

 Ipswich, and these make a very valuable addi- 

 tion to the collections. The skeleton of the 

 Neolithic (or early Bronze age) youth found 

 with an ornamented drinking vessel by Mr. 

 Eeid Moir at Wherstead, near Ipswich, is now 

 on exhibition, together with other interesting 

 human skulls, and the remains of extinct ani- 

 mals. 



The Bureau of Standards has published a 

 paper entitled " Characteristics of Radiation 

 Pyrometers," giving the results of careful 

 study of this type of temperature measuring 

 instrument. Such a study was considered 

 urgent on account of the extensive use of 

 radiation pyrometers in the technical indus- 

 tries. These instruments are widely used in 

 the temperature control of the various proc- 

 esses involved in iron and steel manufacture, 

 alloy foundry work, glass, ceramics and brick 

 manufacture, smelting, gas works, steam, 

 generation, lamp manufacture, etc. Many of 

 the instruments examined show different tem- 

 perature readings for different focusing or 

 sighting distances. Errors thus occasioned 

 may amount to several hundred degrees. The 

 effect of dirt upon the lenses and mirrors is of 

 serious importance. The question as to 

 whether the pyrometer absorbs all the heat 

 radiation falling upon it is discussed, and the 

 theory of the instrument, and the connection 

 of the behavior of the pyrometer with the theo- 

 retical radiation laws are given. The Bureau 

 receives a large number of these instruments 

 for test and standardization, from various 



