Decembee 10, 1915] 



SCIENCE 



827 



The death is announced of Dr. C. J. Bouch- 

 ard, emeritus professor of pathology in the 

 University of Paris. 



All persons who intend to present papers 

 before Section E, geology and geography, of 

 the American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science, at the Columbus meeting, 

 should submit title of paper and abstract to 

 Professor George F. Kay, Iowa City, Iowa. 



A NEW method of manufacturing sulphuric 

 acid, for which advantages are claimed, is sug- 

 gested in United States Department of Agri- 

 culture Bulletin No. 283, " The Production of 

 Sulphuric Acid and a Proposed New Method 

 of Manufacture." The essential difference of 

 the method is that the gases employed are 

 drawn downward through a spiral flue in place 

 of being drawn through lead chambers or in- 

 termediate towers. It is asserted that the re- 

 sistance of gases to the downward pull and the 

 constant change in their course through the 

 spiral tend to mix them very intimately. The 

 fact that the gases constantly impinge on the 

 waUs of the spiral flue, which can be cooled 

 either by air or water, makes it practicable to 

 maintain the gases at a temperature most 

 favorable for the efiieient yield of sulphuric 

 acid. In laboratory tests in which the spiral 

 was utilized, practically all the sulphur dioxid 

 was oxidized to sulphuric acid, only traces 

 being lost through escape or in the system. 

 The lead spiral, the author points out, how- 

 ever, is not intended to replace the Glover 

 tower, nor to do away with the Gay-Lussac 

 tower. It is believed that while the lead spiral 

 will take considerable lead, the great reduction 

 it will effect in the chamber space will make it 

 possible to construct a plant with consider- 

 ably less lead than is required in the ordinary 

 chamber system. The new type of plant re- 

 quires no other device to accelerate the reac- 

 tions, occupies much less ground space, and 

 would not need as large buildings, and there- 

 fore should decrease the initial cost of con- 

 struction. The method, however, has been 

 tried only on a laboratory scale, and the bulle- 

 tin refuses to predict just how efficient the 



commercial plant would be, but states that all 

 indications are that this method offers promise 

 of being economically successful. 



The area of the Chugach National Forest, 

 Alaska, which is to be crossed by the railroad 

 that the government is building from Seward 

 to Fairbanks, is reduced nearly one half by a 

 proclamation, signed by President Wilson, re- 

 turning approximately 5,802,000 acres to the 

 public domain. This action follows classifica- 

 tion of the land by the Forest Service showing 

 that the areas involved are not of high enough 

 timber value to warrant government protec- 

 tion, and means the largest elimination of na- 

 tional forest land ever made by a single presi- 

 dential proclamation. The boundaries of the 

 forest, as redrawn by the president's procla- 

 mation, now contain approximately 5,818,000 

 acres, supporting about eight billion feet of 

 merchantable timber. On the area thrown out 

 of the forest there is in the aggregate a large 

 amount of timber, but it is so sparse and scat- 

 tered as to be of little or no commercial value. 

 The land remaining within the forest, how- 

 ever, contains the largest and most accessible 

 supply of timber for the development of the 

 great mineral fields to the north of Bering 

 River, and is the region in which the Alaskan 

 Engineering Commission has been authorized 

 to cut 85 million feet of timber for use in con- 

 structing the government's new railroad. On 

 account of the time required for cutting and 

 seasoning construction timber, the commission 

 has had to purchase some lumber from Wash- 

 ington and Oregon, but as cutting has already 

 commenced on the Chugach, it is expected that 

 the Alaskan timber will soon be serving the 

 needs of the railroad builders. The lands elim- 

 inated by the proclamation are in three large 

 tracts; one along the entire southerly slope of 

 the Chugach Mountains, the second lying 

 northeast of Seward, between Resurrection 

 Bay and Kings Bay, and the third, northwest 

 of the Kenai Mountains in the region around 

 Tustamena and Skilak lakes. In addition, the 

 towns of Hope, Sunrise, Kenai and Ninilchek 

 are eliminated. According to the Forest Serv- 

 ice, the chance of locating homesteads in the 



