398 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. V. No. 114. 



physical laboratorj', at a cost of £30,000 for 

 buildings, and £5,000 a year for maintenance. 

 The deputation was introduced by Lord Lister, 

 and addresses were made, urging the importance 

 of such a laboratory, by Professor Eucker, Lord 

 Eayleigh, Sir Douglas Gallon, Mr. J. Wolfe- 

 Barry and Sir Andrew Noble. Lord Salisbury, 

 in reply, said that all must be heartily anxious 

 for the attainment of the objects advocated, so 

 far as they were practicable. He feared, how- 

 ever, that the demands might in the end 

 greatly exceed those proposed by the com- 

 mittee. He thought it would be better to begin 

 by determining standards which had already 

 been acknowledged as a function of the state, 

 and leave research to private munificence. 



We have, on several occasions, called atten- 

 tion to the work of the Forestry Commission 

 under the auspices of the National Academy of 

 Sciences. This Commission has now selected 

 thirteen new forest reserves, including alto- 

 gether an area of more than 21,000,000 acres, 

 and these have been set aside by President Cleve- 

 land as National forest preserves. Some years 

 ago Congress authorized the Executive to with- 

 draw from public sale parts of the forested pub- 

 lic lands, and during Mr. Harrison's administra- 

 tion about 18,000,000 acres were thus set apart. 

 The new reserves include the central portion 

 of the Black Hills of South Dakota, the Big 

 Horn Mountain Kange in Wyoming, the Jack- 

 son Lake country south of the Yellowstone 

 National Park in Wyoming, the Rooky Moun- 

 tains of northern Montana, a forest region in 

 northern Idaho, the principal part of the Bitter 

 Root Mountain region in Montana and Idaho, 

 the Cascade Mountains of northern and of 

 southern Washington, the Olympic Mountain 

 region in northwestern Washington, the Sierra 

 summits of California north of the Yosemite 

 National Park, the San Jacinto Mountains in 

 southern California, and the Uintah Mountains 

 in northern Utah. 



The February number of the Bulletin of the 

 American Mathematical Society gives a brief ac- 

 count of a Mathematical Conference held in the 

 University of Chicago, December 31, 1896, and 

 January 1, 1897, in response to a call issued by 

 several members of the American I\Iathematical 



Society. Fourteen papers were read and a reso- 

 lution was adopted to the effect that, in the 

 opinion of the conference, it was desirable for 

 the members of the American Mathematical 

 Society to hold in Chicago at least two meet- 

 ings a year for the reading and discussion of 

 mathematical papers, one during Christmas 

 vacation and one in the spring. 



The proceedings of the American Association 

 for the Advancement of Science for the forty- 

 fifth meeting at Buffalo last August have been 

 published by the permanent secretary. The 

 volume appears at an earlier date than usual, 

 probably owing to the omission of abstracts of 

 the papers read before the sections. We have 

 already published the addresses of the presi- 

 dent and the vice-presidents and full accounts 

 of the meeting. We may, however, quote the 

 following facts from the report of the perma- 

 nent secretary. The 333 members and associ- 

 ates in attendance were from the following 

 States : New York, 92 ; Ohio, 31 ; Massachu- 

 setts, 29 ; District of Columbia, 23 ; Pennsyl- 

 vania, 22 ; Indiana, 13 ; Iowa, 12 ; Michigan, 

 11, and less than 10 from each of twenty-seven 

 States and foreign countries. The 270 papers 

 presented before the sections were distributed 

 as follows : mathematics and astronomy, 12 ; 

 Physics, 32 ; chemistry 53 ; mechanical science 

 and engineering, 18 ; geology and geography, 

 42 ; zoology, 22 ; Botany, 44 ; anthropology, 33 ; 

 social and economic science, 13. Several im- 

 portant changes in the constitution have been 

 proposed, which should be carefully considered 

 by members before the next meeting. 



The American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Physical Education has issued the first 

 number of a new quarterly publication, en- 

 titled the American Physical Education Re- 

 view, edited by the Committee on Publication, 

 consisting of Dr. E. M. Hartwell, Dr. George 

 W. Fitz and Mr. Ray Greene Hiding. The 

 present number, which is a double one, ex- 

 tending to 128 pages, contains an article on 

 Peter Henry Ling, the Swedish Gymuasiarch, 

 by Dr. Hartwell, followed by articles on The 

 Olympic Games, The Present Status of Physi- 

 cal Training, Physical Education in Brunswick, 

 Military Drill in the Public Schools, Manual 



