INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1872. lxvii 



all such domestic animals as are diseased, and whose owners 

 are unable to call to their aid the services of the regular vet- 

 erinary profession. As. a further means of usefulness, the 

 officers are expected to make physiological experiments in 

 regard to questions connected with the health and disease 

 ofanimals. The institution is under the direction of Dr. 

 Burdon Sanderson, by whom some important memoirs have 

 already been published. 



Reports of Boards of Health in this country and Europe 

 show continual activity on their part, and among the most 

 prominent in the United States we may mention the Massa- 

 chusetts State Board, which, by the publication of a number 

 of memoirs every year, spreads much needed information be- 

 fore the people. A movement has also been made toward the 

 establishment of a National Board of Health for the United 

 States, to take into consideration questions that concern the 

 whole nation. 



Having thus considered in more or less detail the various 

 branches treated of in the Record, it only remains to bestow 

 a small share of attention upon such movements and opera- 

 tions as do not seem to be included in any of these; and in 

 this connection we may refer to some points in the history 

 of learned institutions both at home and abroad. The dis- 

 astrous experience of the Chicago Academy of Sciences, in 

 which a large and valuable library and museum were entire- 

 ly destroyed by fire in 1871, we mentioned in the Record for 

 1871. We are happy to announce that a new building has 

 been erected, and that the institution is likely to occupy a still 

 more prominent place than before. The death, however, of 

 Dr. Stimpson, its director, during the past year, has been a 

 serious calamity, not only to the Academy, but to American 

 science in general. 



The National Academy of Science, organized during the 

 war, for the purpose of securing to the government the aid 

 and counsel of scientific men in all branches of its work, has 

 held two meetings during the year; one, the regular session 

 at Washington in April, the other at Cambridge in Novem- 

 ber. The first meeting was entirely for business, devoted 

 mainly to the adoption of new rules and the election of new 

 members; at the second, a number of interesting papers were 

 presented by Professors Agassiz, Vcrrill, Mayer, and others. 



