20 



NOTES BY THE EDITOR 



ber of specimens of Mollusks collected by Prof. Adams, while at Panama, 

 amounted to 41,830, embracing 516 species, of which 160 were new and 

 undescribed. The department of mechanics and civil engineering has been 

 enriched by the publication of a work entitled " The naval Dry Docks of 

 the United States," by Charles B. Stuart, Engineer in Chief of the U. S. 

 Navy. 



Two new scientific periodical publications have been started during the 

 past year ; " The Annals of Science, being a record of the inventions and 

 improvements in applied science," conducted by Hamilton L. Smith > 

 Cleveland, Ohio ; and the "American Polytechnic Journal," conducted 

 by Messrs. Page, Greenough & Co., Washington, D. C. Within the same 

 period, the Journal known as the New York Farmer and Mechanic has 

 been discontinued. 



A descriptive catalogue of the plants indiginous to is Ohio in the course 

 of preparation by James W. Ward, Esq., of Cincinnati. 



Chemists and others interested in the progress of science will regret to 

 learn that the reprinting and translating into English of Liebigand Kopp's 

 " Annual Report of the Progress of Chemistry " has failed, after a trial 

 of three volumes, for want of sufficient encouragement. 



Under the auspices of the French Government, a Chinese work on the 

 production of silk has been translated by M. Julien, an eminent scholar 

 of Paris ; in consequence of which the Chinese method has been intro- 

 duced with great benefit into some of the silk-growing districts of France. 

 M. Julien has also translated a Chinese manual on the fabrication of por- 

 celain, which, it is anticipated, will be equally beneficial to that branch of 

 industry. 



The Smithsonian Institution, at Washington, has continued silently, but 

 effectually, to enlarge the sphere of its influence and usefulness, and to 

 elicit from every part of the civilized world commendations, not only of the 

 plan of organization it has adopted, but also of the results it has produced. 

 By a judicious management on the part of the Regents, the funds of the 

 Institution have been increased by the interest on the original bequest, 

 until they now amount to a little more than 750,000. A portion of the 

 original bequest is also yet remaining in England, as the principle of an 

 annuity settled upon the mother of the nephew of Smithson. The Insti- 

 tution is also by the recent decease of a citizen of New York made contin- 

 gent legatee of an estate of considerable magnitude, depending on the de- 

 mise without issue of a single individual. 



Since the adoption of the plan of organization, nearly fifty original me- 

 moirs, purporting to be additions to the sum of human knowledge, have 

 been presented to the Institution for publication. Though a number of 

 these have been returned to their authors, principally on account of not 



