OCTOBKR 30, 1903.] 



SCIENCE. 



575 



instruction for the new school. The board has 

 decided to hold its sessions in Washington 

 hereafter. 



Dr. Frederick Eose, British consul in Stutt- 

 gart, has lately prepared a series of reports 

 on technical education of various kinds in 

 Germany, which have been issued from time 

 to time by the Foreign Office. The latest of 

 these deals with instruction in forestry and 

 the present condition of forest economy. Ac- 

 cording to the abstract in the London Times, 

 he describes the preliminary educational and 

 other qualifications demanded from students, 

 and then proceeds to explain the organization 

 and course of instruction at Eberswalde, in 

 Prussia, Aschaffenburg, in Bavaria and Karls- 

 ruhe, in Baden, as well as the subsequent pros- 

 pects of the qualified students in the different 

 states, in order to show what forestry as a 

 profession is in Germany. He then takes the 

 kingdom of Wiirtemberg as an example of the 

 economical benefits of the scientific manage- 

 ment of forests, and from this estimates the 

 annual value of the forest products of the 

 Empire. Some of his statements on this sub- 

 ject will be of interest. Out of the total of 

 1.35 million acres forming the German Empire, 

 about 35 million consist of forests or forest 

 lands. Rather more than half of this consists 

 of purely forest holdings, the remainder being 

 attached to agricultural holdings. Baden has 

 the largest relative area of forests; the pro- 

 portion of the whole area of the State being 

 40 per cent., while in Prussia it is 25, in 

 Bavaria 3.3 and in Wiirtemberg 30 per cent. 

 The oak is chiefly grown on the Lower Rhine 

 and in Westphalia, the beech in Pomerania, the 

 fir in South Germany, the pine on the Central 

 German hills, the Scotch pine on the plains of 

 northeastern Germany, while the low-lying 

 lands everywhere grow the elm, ash, beech, oak 

 and birch. The Scotch pine is the most widely 

 cultivated of any tree, the pine and fir and the 

 beech coming next in extent of area covered. 

 The annual revenue derived from forests in 

 Germany is estimated at 15 to 18 millions 

 sterling; in regard to Wiirtemberg the precise 

 figures are known. This state possesses IJ 

 millions of acres of forests, the produce of 



which in 1900 yielded £1,700,000; the cost of 

 production was £500,000, leaving a profit of 

 £1,200,000, or about ICs. an acre. If the taxa- 

 tion be deduced from this, there is a clear 

 profit of 14s. an acre. Statistics given by Dr. 

 Rose show a steady annual increase in the 

 value per acre of forest produce since 1860, 

 which amounts in the cases of Prussia, Saxony 

 and Wiirtemberg to as much as 80 per cent. 

 The report concludes with some interesting 

 observations on the importance to a nation 

 from various points of view — sentimental, 

 esthetic and hygienic, as well as economical — 

 of its forests. 



The Royal Society of New South Wales 

 held a conversazione on August 27. The ex- 

 hibits included the following: Mr. R. T. 

 Baker, esliibits from Technological Museum; 

 Mr. Henry Deane, models of the new Central 

 Railway station: clock tower, smaller tower, 

 arrival bridge, general view; His Honor 

 Judge Docker, stereoscope and set of stereo- 

 graphs of Tasmanian scenery ; Geological Sur- 

 vey, N. S. Wales, framed photographs of N. S. 

 Wales geology, meteorite and casts from Gil- 

 goin Station, N. S. Wales, miscellaneous min- 

 erals; Mr. W. M. Hamlet, microscope showing 

 metallic structure by etching methods now 

 used in metalloscope, microscopes; Mr. H. 

 L. Jones, Clark automatic telephone switch- 

 board, model of modern bogey frame with 

 wheels, used on heavy railway tracks in the 

 United States; Mr. J. H. Maiden, copies of 

 plans of the botanic gardens and government 

 domains from 1807 to 1880; Mr. Ernest W. 

 Warren, physical apparatus — vacuum tubes, 

 X-Rays, high frequency apparatus, induction 

 coils, etc. 



Dr. F. Henrotin writes to the Journal of 

 the American Medical Association that Rush 

 Medical College, Chicago, has established a 

 museum in which will be preserved and ex- 

 hibited permanently objects of interest and 

 value in the history of medicine. Especial 

 attention will be given obsolete instruments 

 and appliances for the diagnosis and treat- 

 ment of disease. Many physicians and others 

 have instruments that perhaps even a short 

 time ago were in use, but which have been 



