August 23, 1901.] 



SCIENCE. 



301 



Dr. Charles E. Brown, of the Milwaukee 



Public Museum, is acting editor of the Bulletin, 



which will be known as the Wisconsin Arclix- 



ologist. 



Harlan I. Smith, 



G0VEBN3IENT RAILWAYS IN EUROPE. 



Dr. a. von der Leyen, a railroad expert, 

 has published an article in the June number of 

 the German Bevieiv, concerning the manage- 

 ment of the government railroads of Prussia, 

 of which Consul General Giinther sends an ab- 

 stract to the Department of State. 



He demonstrates that the example of Prussia 

 in buying the private railroads and running 

 them on government account has contributed 

 to popularize this system in other countries, 

 and states that not only have the other German 

 states followed it, but that almost all the other 

 European countries have purchased the exist- 

 ing railroads. 



The Austrian government railroad net has 

 to-day a mileage of almost 6,300 miles ; that 

 of Hungary, about 8,150 miles. Since 1882 

 a great change has taken place in Eussia ; of 

 the then existing 14,000 miles of railroad, only 

 about 40 miles were owned by the government. 

 The total mileage in 1897 was about 24,300 

 miles, of which 15,780 miles belonged to the 

 government. To this must be added the gov- 

 ernment railroads in Finland and Asiatic Eus- 

 sia, the Trans-Caspian and the Siberian rail- 

 roads. The Servian, Eoumanian and^Bulgarian 

 railroads are owned exclusively by the respec- 

 tive governments. Of the northern European 

 kingdoms, Denmark has a government railroad 

 system of 1,167 miles and 525 miles of private 

 railroads. Norway's railroads belong almost 

 exclusively to the government. Sweden has 

 2,303 miles of government and 4,387 miles of 

 private railroads. The government has not 

 yet succeeded in acquiring the latter, al- 

 though efforts have been made to do so. 

 Belgium, in 1898, through the purchase of the 

 Grand Central Beige and some minor private 

 roads, became the possessor of the whole Bel- 

 gium railroad system. Holland acquired all 

 the remaining private railroads in 1890 ; they 

 are, however, operated by two private com- 

 panies. The Italian Government purchased all 



private main railroads of Italy in 1885 and 

 leased them for twenty years to private cor- 

 porations. Mr. von der Leyen states that both 

 the last countries have had unpleasant experi- 

 ences with this arrangement. Switzerland, after 

 long discussion, resolved by federal law in Octo- 

 ber, 1897, to gradually purchase all the private 

 railroads. On January 1, 1901, the first federal 

 railroads were operated by the Government. 

 Bj'^ agreements of 1883, the six large French 

 private railroads had their rights recognized by 

 the Government, and no change has been made 

 in the policy in that country. The relatively 

 small Government railroad system, located 

 between the Orleans and the Western railroads, 

 has remained intact. As the private railroads, 

 however, have received large subsidies from the 

 Government, and as they will revert to the 

 State in the second half of the present cen- 

 tury, they can hardly be considered purely 

 private railroads. Of the countries which have 

 a private railroad system exclusively, only Eng- 

 land and the United States remain. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 

 The fiftieth annual meeting of the American 

 Association for the Advancement of Science, as 

 all the readers of this Journal are doubtless 

 aware, opens with a meeting of the council, at 

 three o'clock on the afternoon of Saturday, 

 August 24. The first general session of the As- 

 sociation, however, begins at ten o'clock on 

 the following Monday, when Professor "Wood- 

 ward, the retiring president, will introduce the 

 president-elect, Professor Minot, Addresses 

 of welcome will be made by the Hon. J, B. 

 Orman, Governor of Colorado, and Hon. E. 

 E, Wright, Jr., Mayor of Denver, Honor- 

 ary President, J. B. Grant, will introduce Gen- 

 eral Irving Hale and Aaron Gove, who will 

 welcome the Association on behalf of the busi- 

 ness men of Denver and the educators of Colo- 

 rado, To these addresses President Minot will 

 reply. After announcements have been made 

 by the secretaries, the general session will ad- 

 journ and the sections will be organized. The 

 addresses of the vice-presidents are delivered in 

 the afternoon, and the retiring president will 

 give his address entitled ' The Progress of Sci- 

 ence ' on Tuesday evening. The Sections of 



