DECEMBER 31, 1897. ] 
paper on the subject before the Society on the 
14th of December. 
WE announced recently that the American 
Forestry Association would hereafter publish a 
journal devoted to the interests it represents. 
Garden and Forest states that the Association 
will take The Forester, founded and for the past 
three years edited by Mr. John Gifford, Prince- 
ton, N. J. The new office of The Forester will 
be at No. 73 Cochran Building, Washington. 
THE Report of the Director of the Field Co- 
lumbian Museum for 1896-7 reflects much 
credit upon the Museum staff, showing that a 
large amount of work has been accomplished by 
a small force and that good progress has been 
made in caring for the study series as well as in 
installing the exhibits. The report contains a 
number of plates showing the methods of in- 
stallation in the various departments. The 
‘monographic installation of North American 
forest trees’ seems extremely good, both from 
an educational and scientific standpoint. It 
comprises a branch, flowers, fruits and block of 
wood from one tree ; a photograph of the same 
tree in summer and winter; a seven-foot sec- 
tion of the trunk, a tramsverse section ; com- 
mercial planks and, finally, a map of North 
America colored to show the distribution of the 
species. The mammal groups of Mr. Akeley, 
who is unrivaled in this work, are deserving of 
special notice, particularly that of the Lesser 
Koodoo with its striking central figure. The 
group of Musk oxen contains, so far as we are 
aware, by far the best series contained in any 
museum. 
Appleton’s Popular Science Monthly for January 
contains an article on the ‘ Causes and Distribu- 
tion of Infectious Diseases,’ by Surgeon-General 
George M. Sternberg. The subject is treated his- 
torically, and includes a brief outline of the more 
serious epidemics of the past one hundred 
years. 
WE quote the following editorial note from 
the December issue of the London Educational 
Times: ‘‘ Eulogistic notices of the late J. J. 
Sylvester, Savilian professor at Oxford, whom 
our readers will remember as a frequent con- 
SCIENCE. 
‘now being published in the United States. 
991 
tributor to our columns, have appeared in the 
mathematical and other journals of America, 
France, Germany and Belgium. Professor Hal- 
sted, writing in Science (U. S. A.), says: 
‘When one thinks that Sylvester, William 
Thomson, Maxwell, Clifford, J. J. Thomson, 
have all been second wranglers, one asks in- 
voluntarily if any senior wranglers, Cayley 
excepted, have been put on the same parallel 
with them?’ Professor Halsted might have: 
added Whewell and Glaisher to his seconds. 
But, as to the seniors, what about Paley (to 
match Whewell), Wollaston, the double seniors 
Kaye and Alderson, Herschel, Sir George Airy, 
Main, Stokes, Adams, Todhunter, Tait, Lord 
Rayleigh, and Cayley aforesaid? However, it 
must be admitted that there are some heavy 
weights in the other scale.’ There is nothing: 
in any American college or university corre- 
sponding to the extreme specialization of the 
mathematical Tripos at Cambridge. Yet a 
method which secures such extraordinary re- 
sults should at least be carefully studied. 
To the numerous ‘ Années’ recently estab- 
lished in France will now be added L’ Année: 
sociologique, edited by M. Durkheim, professor 
of sociology at Bordeaux, and published by M. 
Felix Alcan, Paris. The volume for 1897 will 
be issued early next year and will contain 
original articles by the editor and by Professor 
Simmel, of Berlin, followed by systematic reviews 
of the literature. We regret that the attempt 
will not be made to give a complete bibliography, 
but perhaps this will be added to later volumes. 
THE Western Medical and Surgical Gazette, 
which has just begun publication at Denver, 
under the charge of professors in the Gross 
Medical College is, we believe, the two hun- 
dred and twenty-sixth monthly medical journal 
This 
would allow one monthly journal for each 500 
physicians in the country, and probably not one- 
half of them subscribe for any journal. It is 
not necessary to predict whether mediocrity or 
progress through survival of the fit will result. 
It is, however, but fair to state that the new 
Gazette promises better than many of the med- 
ical journals that we receive. 
PROFESSOR G. SERGI, of the University of 
