382 
EDITORIAL. 
Rapport  a  Vacademie  Imperiale  de  Reims  sur  V introduction,  ei  la  culture  du 
Pin  noir  d'Autriche  dans  les  plaines  steriles  de  la  Champagne  ;  par  M.  Le 
Docteu  c  Leuchsenring,  membre  correspondent.  Keims,  Aout  1855.  Pp. 
28,  octavo. 
This  pamphlet  is  on  the  introduction  of  the  Black  Pine  of  Austria  as  a 
forest  tree  into  Champagne,  France,  where  much  sterile  soil  suited  to  its 
growth  exists.  Much  more  attention  is  devoted  to  arbor-culture  in  Europe, 
where  the  primitive  forests  have  to  a  much  greater  extent  disappeared  be- 
fore the  wants  of  society,  than  in  this  country.  About  a  century  ago  the 
Larch  was  extensively  introduced  into  the  Scottish  Highlands  by  the  Duke 
of  Athol,  and  his  descendants  at  this  day  reap  a  large  income  from  the 
timber  yielded  by  the  forests  thus  begun.  It  is  quite  time  that  some  of 
our  own  political  economists  should  direct  public  attention  to,  and  demon- 
strate the  feasibility  and  importance  of,  planting  forest  trees  of  native  and 
foreign  varieties  of  value.  Already  the  destruction  of  timber  on  our  moun- 
tains and  highlands  is  modifying  the  condensing  power  of  those  primal 
sources  of  rivers,  and  deteriorating  the  value  of  the  latter  as  highways  of 
traffic. 
Obituary. — Within  the  past  year  death  has  been  busy  among  men  emi- 
nent in  science,  and  it  is  right  to  place  a  record  of  his  doings  on  our  pages, 
devoted  though  they  be  to  but  one  department  of  knowledge. 
John  Ayrton  Paris.  This  excellent  and  distinguished  man  died  at  his 
residence  in  London  on  the  24th  of  December,  1856,  in  the  seventy-second 
year  of  his  age,  having  been  at  born  at  Cambridge  on  the  7th  of  August, 
1785.  Dr.  Paris  commenced  the  study  of  his  profession  when  but  fourteen 
years  old,  and  manifested  great  zeal  in  its  pursuit ;  he  graduated  early 
at  Caius  College,  Cambridge,  and  afterwards  studied  at  Edinburgh.  He 
was  elected  Physician  to  the  Westminister  Hospital  at  twenty-two,  but 
soon  resigned  the  appointment  and  moved  to  Penzance,  in  Cornwall. 
Whilst  residing  here  he  founded  the  Royal  Geological  Society  of  Cornwall, 
and  gave  to  the  Cornish  miner  a  great  boon  in  the  "  Tamping-bar,"  an  in- 
strument by  which  he  is  able  to  pursue  his  business  among  inflammable 
gases  without  fear  of  striking  fire  from  the  rock.  In  1810  he  returned  to 
London,  and  then  continued  the  practice  of  medicine  until  two  weeks  before 
his  death.  He  was  elected  President  of  the  London  College  of  Physicians 
in  1844,  which  distinguished  position  he  held  till  death.  His  abilities  as 
a  physician  were  of  the  highest  order,  and  his  literary  attainments  quite 
remarkable.  "  The  Life  of  Sir  Humphrey  Davy  will  ever  remain  one  of 
the  classical  biographies  of  the  English  language."  The  Pharmaceutist 
knows  him  chiefly  through  his  Pharmacologia  and  his  "  Medical  Chemistry." 
Besides  these  he  wrote  works  on  Diet,  Medical  Jurisprudence,  and  on  "  Phi- 
losophy in  Sport."  He  suffered  much  a  few  days  previous  to  his  decease, 
but  retained  his  intellect  clear  and  bright  while  speech  remained. 
Hugh  Miller. — On  the  same  day  with  Dr.  Paris,  (Dec.  24,  1856,)  but 
