10 NOTES BY THE EDITOR 



Claire Deville, and will be confined to researches and analyses in 

 mineral chemistry. 



The following award of prizes was made during the past year by 

 the Trench Academy : The great Ouvierian Prize, which is only 

 given to works of the first merit, was presented to M. Miiller, for his 

 Researches into the Structure and Development of Echinodermes, one 

 of those works " which have contributed most to the philosophy of 

 the science, to organogeny, zoology, and general physiology, since the 

 death of Cuvier." This is the second time the Cuvierian Prize has 

 been given, it having been awarded for the first time to Agassiz, for his 

 work on Fossil Fishes. A prize of 2,000 francs was awarded to M. 

 Berthelot, for his chemical researches on the fatty bodies. Medals were 

 also decreed to all the astronomers who, during the year 1854, dis- 

 covered planets to MM. Luther, Marth, Hind, Ferguson, Goldschmidt, 

 and Oharcornac. Three awards were given for improvements in the 

 processes used in Arts that are injurious to health one for the sub- 

 stitution of potato starch for wood charcoal in preparing molds of 

 clay for receiving copper, bronze, and melted cast-iron, proposed by a 

 poor armorer, M. Eouy: a plan now generally adopted in the found - 

 eries of France, because it is not so hurtful to the workmen, although 

 starch is dearer than charcoal powder. Another award was made to 

 M. Mabru for a process for preserving milk in its natural state, which 

 is simply this tin canisters, having a small tubular opening, are filled 

 full, and then kept for some time in a water-bath, to drive out all air, 

 and finally hermetically sealed. 



The following scientific researches are now in progress under the 

 auspices and at the expense of the Royal (English) Society : Re- 

 searches on earthquake waves, by Robert Mallet ; researches on the 

 excretion of men and animals, by Dr. Marcet; experiments on the 

 strength of materials, by Professor Hodgkinson; experimental re- 

 searches on heat and mcignetism, by Dr. Tyndall ; experimental re- 

 searches on the heat developed by the oxydation of certain metals, by 

 Dr. Woods ; experimental researches on fiuids in motion, and on the 

 thermal effects experienced by fiuids in passing through small aper- 

 tures, illustrating the typical forms of Foramenifera, by Dr. Carpenter; 

 chemical researches on the solid oils and waxes of the vegetable 

 kingdom, by ISTevil Maskelyn, Esq. ; experimental researches on the 

 physiology of the blood, by Dr. Davy ; experiments on the thermal 

 effects of electric currents in unequally heated conductors, by Professor 

 William Thompson. 



The Imperial Geological Institution at Vienna has published a 

 " Geologische Uebersicht der Oesterreichischen Monarchic," in which 

 more than 2,000 localities, where mining establishments in Austria 

 exist, have been named, and described. 



