semination of their discoveries. Each observer, says the editor, has but to write to him, and in ten days his discovery will be in print, and in the hands of every entomologist in the kingdom. Mr. Stainton's penny journal, which marks a step in entomological science highly characteristic of the times, is deserving of the warmest encouragement.

One of the most valuable of recent publications is Schubarth's Repertorium, or a "Subject Matter Index of Patents, with Published Inventions of all Nations, from 1823 to 1853, inclusive." Mr. Schubarth is one of the Prussian Commissioners of Patents, and the work in question is the result of thirty years' labor.

Schubarth's Repertorium has been ordered to be printed in Prussia at the public expense, by the Minister of Commerce. It embraces a period of thirty-one years, from 1823 to 1853, inclusive. It is intended to publish a Supplementary Index in 1859.

It is an advantageous circumstance that this Index, although written in the German language, is printed in English type, by which it is made intelligible to any European who may wish to consult it; but in order to render the Repertorium perfectly available to the general public of England and America, an English translation and a new alphabetical arrangement of its 644 general heads has recently been made. This Mr. Bennet Woodcroft, Superintendent of English Patents, has done, adding at the same time, in parallel columns, to each of Mr. Schubarth's heads, the corresponding references to the subject matter Indexes of British Patents.

Schubarth's Repertorium, in conjunction with Mr. B. Woodcroft's Indexes of British Patents, affords to intending patentees, or their agents, a facility of reference and consultation which leaves little doubt that the great desideratum of placing the entire mass of the industrial information of the world within the reach of every mechanic will ultimately be attained. At least, two very important preliminary steps towards this end have been taken simultaneously, yet independently, by the two gentlemen already named.

The Geographical Society at Paris, in its first Annual Meeting for 1856, awarded its prize, for the most important discovery during the last year, to Dr. Heinrich Barth. The next prize, of a golden medal, was adjudged to Mr. E. George Squier, of the United States, for his Central American Researches.

The Founders' Gold Medal of the Royal Geographical Society, England, has been awarded to Dr. Kane for his discoveries in the Polar Regions.

The International Association for the Uniformity of Weights, Measures, and Money, which recently assembled at Paris, is slowly but surely effecting its objects, and achieving results which will hereafter

be of the utmost importance to reciprocal trade and the more enlarged interchange of commerce. The Permanent International Committee now comprises influential and intelligent members from Portugal, Mexico, England, the United States, Austria, and France. Sweden, Belgium, and other countries are also working in the common cause. The press of every nation has been requested to consider-first, the question of unity in the denomination of moneys; secondly, unity of standard; and, thirdly, unity of weights and measures of all kinds, whether economical or scientific.

No two countries have the same weights and measures, though the same name to designate them may be used in many countries. Take the mile measure, for instance. In England and the United States, a mile means 1,760 yards; in the Netherlands it is 1,093 yards; while in Germany it is 10,120 yards, or nearly six English miles; in France it is 3,025 yards. The Scotch mile is 1,984, and the Irish 2,038 yards; the Spanish is 2,472 yards, and the Swedish mile 11,700 yards. These are computed in English yards; but the yard itself, of three feet in length, has divers significations in different places. The English yard is 36 inches; the French, 39-13 inches; the Geneva yard, 57·60; the Austrian, 37-35; the Spanish yard, 33·04; the Prussian, 36.57; the Russian, 39-51. For measures of capacity, the dissimilarity is wider and more perplexing.

There is no necessity, however, for introducing the French metrical system into Great Britain and the United States, as with much less trouble and confusion a decimal system can be introduced on the established units. Thus the pound and the foot may be decimally divided without introducing the kilogramme or the metre, or, what would be the very sure form of the operation, a "usuel" pound and foot, being respectively half a kilogramme and one-third of a metre, and thereby defeating the benefits of a decimal system of calculation. It is not a little remarkable that with a decimal currency system-acknowledged to be practically the best in operation-the people and the government of the United States have been content so long to continue the use of the antiquated scale of weights and measures with which trade has been embarrassed in England and its dependencies-the pound as the unit of weight, with its heterogeneous multiples and divisions, of ounce, pennyweight, and grain, of stone, quarter, hundredweight, and ton; moreover, occasionally duplicates of these, as the pound troy, and the pound avoirdupoise-the stone of 14, and the stone of 8 pounds, &c. Nor has the lineal unit better recommendation. Its division into feet

and inches, and its multiples, those of pole, furlong, and mile, are of an antiquity that renders them always cumbrous and incongruous, and, in the main, practically unsuited to the age.

There appears to be no reason why a decimal system should not

afford equal advantages if applied, as it no doubt will be ultimately, to the scale of weights and measures. The adoption of such a system, however simple it may appear in the abstract, would nevertheless entail little less than an entire revolution in all the transactions of commerce, and, like all other innovations upon established usage, would have its opponents and its victims, as well as its interested advocates, and should, therefore, be approached with great caution.

The second Annual Report of the Geological Survey of New Jersey, by Prof. Kitchell, the first and second Annual Report of the Geological Survey of Missouri, by Prof. Swallow, and a Geological Reconnoissance of Tennessee, by Prof. Safford, have all been published during the past

season.

The Board of Trustees of the University of Mississippi have authorized the erection of a first class Astronomical Observatory at Oxford, Mississippi, and have contracted for a transit circle similar to that introduced by Prof. Airy at Greenwich. If the enlightened policy, thus inaugurated by the Board of Trustees, be fully carried out, Mississippi, through her University, will soon place herself in a very honorable relation to the progress of intellectual improvement in the world. The sum of fifteen thousand pounds has been voted by the British Parliament for the exploration of Northern Australia, under the direction of the Royal Geographical Society, and an expedition, under the charge of Mr. Gregory, left New South Wales for the interior during the past year. The objects of the expedition are, briefly to trace the Victoria river to its source, and to determine the character of the north-western interior, and afterwards to endeavor to find out a more direct tract than the circuitous route traversed by Leichardt, from the head of the Gulf of Carpentaria to the settlements on the eastern coast, comprised under the general name of Moreton Bay. The time required to do this is estimated at not less than three years.

M. Petermann, in a recent publication on the Explorations of Central Africa, says, the country lying south of five degrees is one wide, flat plain, over which isolated mountains or groups of mountains are scattered, but that, north of that latitude, a chain of mountains, about seventy-five geographical miles in length, runs from east to west. Tracts of mountains, many rising into the regions of eternal snow, extend from these across the equator.

The mystery of the Nile is about to be attacked on every side. Capt. Burton is preparing a new expedition; the East India Company having granted him two years' leave with full pay, and the English Government having allowed £1,000 towards the expenses. The Pasha of Egypt has also ordered a new expedition to be organized to ascend the Nile, under M. de Lauture, an experienced African traveller. The expedition will be accompanied by twelve Europeans. This expe

dition is undertaken entirely at the cost of the Viceroy of Egypt, and the members will receive, in addition to their rations, the sum of £10 to £14 per month during the time employed on it, which is computed at two years. Count de Lauture and Capt. Burton will advance in friendly rivalry from opposite quarters towards the sources of the Nile, and perhaps meet on a common ground to solve the most attractive of geographical problems.

A successful attempt has been made during the past year to ascend Mount Ararat (a feat but once before successfully accomplished), by a party of English officers and tourists. The height of this mountain is 17,323 feet above the sea-level, and 14,300 feet above the plain adjoining. Major Stuart, of the British army, one of the party, says :

"The whole surface of Mount Ararat bears evidence of having been subject to violent volcanic action, being seamed and scored with deep ravines. The rocky ridges that protrude from the snow are either basalt or tufa; and near the summit we found some bits of pumice on a spot which still emits a strong sulphurous smell. The summit itself is nearly level, of a triangular shape, the base being about 200 yards in length, the perpendicular about 300. The highest point is at the apex of the triangle, which points nearly due west; separated from it by a hollow is another point of nearly equal altitude, and the base of the triangle is an elevated ridge, forming a third eminence. These three points stand out in distinct relief on a clear day. The snow on the top is almost as dry as powder, and in walking over it we did not sink more than half-way to the knee. The impression left on my mind is, that the summit is an extinct crater filled with snow. We experienced no difficulty of respiration, except being sooner blown by exertion than we should have been at a lower level. The cold was intense."

During the past season Prof. Piazzi Smyth, Astronomer Royal of Scotland, through assistance generously offered by Robert Stephenson, the well known engineer, visited the Peak of Teneriffe, for the purpose of astronomical observation.

The immediate object of this expedition was to determine how far astronomical observation may be improved by the elevation of telescopes into the higher regions of the atmosphere. Prof. S. carried with him the great equatorial telescope of the Edinburgh Observatory, and a full supply of all other minor instruments of the very best character. The party having reached their destination in safety, two stations were successively occupied: one 8,870 feet above the sea-level, the other 10,900 feet.

At both these stations, the nights were almost constantly clear, and the purity of the atmosphere was abundantly proved by the brightness and definition of the stars examined. In proof of the advantage of the elevation, Prof. Smyth states that the limit of vision of the

smaller telescope was extended from the stars of the tenth to those of the fourteenth degree of magnitude; and as to fineness of definition, while at Edinburgh he had never seen good images of stars in that instrument, at the lower station it exhibited such clear and perfect stellar disks as he had never before seen in any telescope at or near the level of the sea.

The astronomical conclusions as to the purity of the atmosphere were confirmed by other observations, some of them attended with unforeseen and untoward accidents. A radiation thermometer was broken in a few minutes by the intense power of the sun, for which its maker, in foggy England, had made no provision. Two other thermometers that had been prepared according to Arago's ideas, and the greater strength of the sun in France, though marking 180°, were insufficient to register the extraordinary intensity of the solar rays; for, by 10 A.M., the top of the scale was reached, and the upper bulb began to fill to an unknown extent. More successful was the observation of the radiation of the moon by means of the Admiralty delicate thermo-multiplier lent by Mr. Gassiot.

"The position of the moon was by no means favorable, being on the night of the full, 19° south of the Equator; but the air was perfectly calm, and the rare atmosphere so favorable to radiation, that a very sensible amount of heat was found both on this and the following night. The absolute amount was small, being about one-third of that radiated by a candle at a distance of fifteen feet; but the perfect capacity of the instrument to measure still smaller quantities, and the confirmatory result of groups of several hundred observations, leave no doubt of the fact of our having been enabled to measure here a quantity which is so small as to be altogether inappreciable at lower altitudes."

Of the other observations made at Guajara, the abstract given in the Report attests the excellence of this station for various scientific researches:

66 Closely connected with radiation is the quantity of the light emitted by the heavenly bodies, and this was examined frequently, in the case of the sun and moon and different parts of the sky, by observations of Frauenhofer's lines in the spectrum. Stokes's spectrum was also examined, as recommended by the Royal Society, and was found to be traceable beyond the furthest point previously ascertained elsewhere. Means of photographing this spectrum were also prepared, and some pictures of it on glass obtained, showing many of the dark lines beyond H, the usual limit of vision.

"At the upper station, with the larger telescope, the definition proved admirable; so much so, that not only once, but every night for a week, I could see that difficult test, B and C of Andromeda, as two distinct