POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



139 



picture taken with this instrument the first 

 daguerreotype of still-life taken in this coun- 

 try was a view of the old Brick Church and 

 the City Ilall in New York, and was a great 

 curiosity. Daguerre's process required an 

 exposure of twenty minutes, and he said 

 that living objects could not be taken by 

 it, on account of the difficulty of their keep- 

 ing still so long. Professor Draper suc- 

 ceeded in shortening the exposure by sub- 

 stituting bromide of iodine for the iodine 

 used by Daguerre, and with the aid of this 

 compound took the first portrait of the hu- 

 man face. This was in 1839, and the suc- 

 cess of the experiment was announced in a 

 note dated March 81, 1840, in the London 

 "Philosophical Magazine" for June, 1840. 

 Professor Morse afterward tried the process, 

 and took a portrait of his daughter. Mr. 

 Prosch opened a daguerrean gallery at the 

 corner of Broadway and Liberty Street, where 

 Professor West was the first to sit for his 

 portrait. The light of the sun was thrown 

 directly upon his face by reflection from a 

 mirror ; consequently, he had to shut his 

 eyes, and they were represented closed. Mr. 

 \Yolcott was not ready to begin his work till 

 the spring of 1840; but he was successful 

 in taking the best portraits in the city. The 

 question of priority was not raised till 1860, 

 when it was considered by a committee of 

 the American Institute, to whom Professor 

 Draper submitted a written statement, while 

 the friends of Wolcott failed to do so. 

 Draper is also credited in the " Edinburgh 

 Keview " for January, 1843, with having 

 been the first person who took portraits by 

 the daguerreotype process. 



The Prevention of Insanity. Dr. Na- 

 than Allen, of Lowell, Massachusetts, in a 

 pamphlet on that subject, calls attention to 

 the prevention of insanity as a question 

 which, although much neglected, is at least 

 quite as important as that of the cure of in- 

 sanity. The disease is very largely depend- 

 ent on physical and sanitary conditions, and 

 these should be studied out and brought 

 within such regulation as will prevent its 

 development. Since, according to the late 

 Sir James Coxe, insanity originates in some 

 form of disease or in a deteiioration of the 

 body rather than in an exclusive affection 

 of the nervous system, its growth should be 



checked by a general diffusion of the knowl- 

 edge of the laws of the human organism 

 and the use of all means necessary for the 

 preservation of good health. So far as in- 

 sanity is hereditary, its transmission should 

 be prevented by avoiding marriage with 

 persons predisposed to it. It should be the 

 aim of the medical profession to become so 

 well acquainted with the diseases of the 

 nervous system and the brain that they 

 could detect the first symptoms of disturbed 

 or deranged states of mind, so as to be able 

 to treat them understandingly, and, in all 

 probability, in many cases successfully. 



The New York State Musenm of Natu- 

 ral History. The Trustees of the New York 

 State Museum of Natural History, having 

 about eight thousand square feet of space 

 available for the exhibition of specimens 

 requiring twenty-one thousand square feet 

 for their proper display, complain that the 

 present museum-building has become en- 

 tirely inadequate for its intended purpose. 

 Relief is anticipated, however, from the 

 gradual occupation of the State Hall, a fire- 

 proof building, which is authorized as fast 

 as its rooms may become vacant by the re- 

 moval of State offices to the new Capitol. 

 A consolidation of the scientific work done 

 under the patronage of the State, which is 

 now scattered under several distinct heads, 

 is recommended by the trustees, so as to 

 make it all a part of the museum. The re- 

 ports of the museum, and the scientific 

 work generally, now lagging far behind, un- 

 der the operation of the political patronage 

 and plunder system of printing, are impa- 

 tiently waited for by the scientific world, 

 and the trustees suggest that the demand 

 could be more speedily and fully satisfied if 

 the printing of them were intrusted directly 

 to the institution. Four volumes of valu- 

 able museum reports are still unprinted, 

 though long due. Of the Geological Sur- 

 vey's work on Paleontology, five parts have 

 been published in seven bound volumes. 

 Five bound volumes are required to com- 

 plete the work, for which a considerable 

 proportion of the plates and manuscript are 

 prepared. Seventeen letters and declara- 

 tions, from as many eminent scientific men 

 and societies, are published, in connection 

 with the statement of the trustees of the 



