EDITOR'S TABLE. 



2 39 



them from containing any thing of im- 

 portance in the way of original inves- 

 tigation." Again : " The only place in 

 which we can search for any thing in 

 the shape of original contributions to 

 mathematics is in the transactions of 

 our learned societies ; and here we find, 

 since the Declaration of Independence, 

 a score or two of papers professedly 

 of this character, but it is not likely 

 that more than one or two of them 

 contain any thing worthy of quotation 

 or remark. The whole of them to- 

 gether would not amount to so much 

 as the mathematical journals of Europe 

 publish in a month." 



"When we pass to the physical sci- 

 ences, the prospect is said to be a lit- 

 tle more encouraging. We have ac- 

 tive -workers of the highest character 

 in experimental physics, but they are 

 very few, and their productions small. 

 " Here, as in every other science, we 

 find our deficiency to increase just in 

 proportion as the science becomes ex- 

 act. Many branches of physics have 

 attained, and nearly all the remain- 

 ing branches are rapidly attaining, the 

 mathematical stage of development. 

 As they enter this stage, we find our 

 American cultivators all dropping off." 

 In exact astronomy, we have the emi- 

 nent names of Bowditch and Peirce ; 

 observatories quite comparable with 

 those of Europe, in charge of first-class 

 men, " yet we do not find our astrono- 

 mers engaging in investigations of the 

 utmost delicacy ; and the first deter- 

 mination of the parallax of a fixed star 

 by an American astronomer has yet to 

 come." 



Taking scientific journals and trans- 

 actions as the measure of work, we have 

 but a solitary periodical of the first rank 

 Sillinian's Journal. " Our two most 

 active societies have been the Philo- 

 sophical Society of Philadelphia, and 

 the American Academy of Arts and 

 Sciences, each of which has brought 

 out about a dozen volumes of transac- 

 tions since the beginning of the century. 



Excluding societies whose publications 

 are purely biological, we are not aware 

 that half a dozen other volumes of trans- 

 actions have appeared within the inter- 

 val alluded to. Add the eighteen vol- 

 umes published by the Smithsonian In- 

 stitution, itself founded by a foreigner, 

 and we shall have a total of between 

 forty-five and fifty volumes in three- 

 fourths of a century. This total, com- 

 bined product of the Smith sonion In- 

 stitution and all the scientific societies 

 of the country is about equal to what 

 either the Eoyal Society or the French 

 Academy of Sciences publishes in one- 

 third the time. . . . 



" The great mass of scientific papers 

 in Europe do not, however, appear in 

 transactions, but in scientific journals. 

 Here we stand at a much more striking 

 disadvantage. Against a hundred and 

 fifty or two hundred pages annually on 

 astronomy and physics in Sillimcm's 

 Journal, Germany can show us two 

 journals of pure mathematics, publish- 

 ing together three or four large vol- 

 umes of matter every year two or 

 more of mathematics and physics, one 

 of astronomy, and one of physics and 

 chemistry. Altogether, these journals 

 issue ten or eleven volumes annually, 

 half of them quarto, and half octavo." 



Making allowance for a semi-popu- 

 lar element in English original contribu- 

 tions, "it is probable that, instead of 

 finding in England, as we do in Ger- 

 many, thirty or forty times as much 

 publication of original research in exact 

 science as in America, we should find 

 only five or ten times as much. A com- 

 parison with France would probably be 

 more to our disadvantage than that with 

 England, as the Comptes Sendus of the 

 French Academy alone contain ten times 

 more matter pertaining to exact science 

 than Sillimaii's Journal does." 



In view of these results, Prof. New- 

 comb remarks : " Making every possi- 

 ble allowance, and viewing the facts 

 from every stand-point, we shall be 

 able to make only the most beggarly 



