22 NOTES BY THE EDITOR 



Institution, or ai*e now in the course of preparation. On the "Dip, Intensi- 

 ty, and Inclination of the Magnetic Force in several parts of the United 

 States," by Dr. John Locke of Cincinnati. " On the Winds of the South- 

 ern Hemisphere," by Prof. James Coffin. The data used in the prepara- 

 tion of this memoir have been collected with great labor, and consist of 

 observations made at no less than five hundred and seventy-six different 

 stations on land, and a large number taken during numerous voyages at 

 sea. The field of observation includes a zone which extends from the 

 equator to nearly the parallel of 85 deg. north latitude, and occupies a 

 period, taken in the aggregate, of 2,800 years. 



A memoir is also in the course of preparation on the extinct family of cri- 

 noids found in thejicinity of Nashville, Ter.n., founded on drawings, collec- 

 tions, and descriptions left by the late Dr. Troost of Nashville. The labor of 

 preparing this work has been gratuitously undertaken by Prof.'s Agassiz & 

 Hall. A memoir by Dr. Leidy, " The Flora and Fauna of Animals." This 

 is an elaborate history of a most remarkable series of plants, in many cases 

 accompanied by parasitic animals, found growing, as an ordinary or natu- 

 ral condition, within the interior of the bodies of living animals. In some 

 of the latter, it is stated, growing plants are never absent ; and in a 

 species of insects, viz : Papulus Cornutus, a forest of vegetation is always 

 found covering the inner surface of the ventriculus or second stomach, 

 The plants of course are Cryptogamic, and are algoid in their character. 

 Some are as long as half an inch, but usually they are very much smaller. 

 They grow attached to the mucous membrane of the cavities in which they 

 are found, and occasionally from the exterior covering of worms infesting 

 the same cavities. The researches are prefaced by some observations on 

 the laws of parasitic life in general, which are presented in a highly philo- 

 sophical manner, and entirely free from hypothesis the whole forming 

 one of the most remarkable papers on physiology, which has ever been 

 produced by our countrymen. " On the Dynamic Effect of the Tides," by 

 Lieut. Chas. H. Davis. 



A volume of tables of use in Meteorolgy and other branches of scientific 

 observations, has been prepared, under the direction of the Institution, by 

 Prof. Guyot. The following are the contents of this volume, viz : 1. 

 Thermomctrical tables for the conversion of the scales of different ther- 

 mometers into each other. 2. Hygrometrical tables, giving the elastic 

 force of vapor, the relative humidity, &c. 3. Barometrical tables for the 

 comparisons of different scales, reduction of observations to the freezing 

 point, and correction for capillary action. 4. Hypsometrical tables for 

 calculating altitudes by the barometer, and by the difference of the boiling 

 point. 5. Tables of the corrections to be applied to the monthly means to 

 obtain the true mean. 6. A set of miscellaneous tables frequently re- 



