12 NOTES BY THE EDITOR 



Boston publisher, the Natural History Society of that city have re- 

 ceived a valuable donation of rare and costly works relating to 

 natural history, of the value of $2,000. 



Nathan Jackson, Esq., of New York city, has presented $3,500 to 

 the Lyceum of Natural History of Williams College, to aid in the 

 erection of a building for scientific purposes. 



According to a document read at a recent meeting of the Connecti- 

 cut Historical Society, by Hon. Henry Barnard, the whole amount of 

 land appropriated by the General Government for educational pur- 

 poses, to the 1st of January, 1854, was 52.970,231 acres; which, at 

 the minimum price of such lands when first brought into market, re- 

 presented the munificent sum of $56,000,000 but which at this time 

 could not be worth less than $200,000,000. The amount of the dona- 

 tions and subscriptions by individuals far exceeds all that has been 

 given by State Legislatures. Mr. Barnard read from a table exhibit- 

 ing the donations and bequests made by citizens of Boston within the 

 last half century, amounting to upward of $4,000,000. 



Two German travelers, who have recently returned from an ex- 

 tensive tour in America, Drs. Wagner and Karl Scherzer, are prepar- 

 ing for publication a work on the results of their joint labors two 

 volumes of which (those referring to Central America) are already in 

 the press. Messrs. Wagner and Scherzer have wandered through 

 North America, from the estuary of the St. Lawrence to that of the 

 Mississippi through the five republics of Central America, from 

 Costa Rica to the northern frontier of Guatemala and through the 

 West India Islands of Jamaica, Hayti, and Cuba. The total length 

 of their tour amounts to 30,000 miles, which they have made in not 

 more than three years. Besides very considerable geological and 

 botanical collections, the travelers have also brought together some 

 thousands of vertebrate animals, mostly birds and reptiles, and about 

 50,000 specimens of invertebrate ones, the fourth part of which is said 

 to consist of quite new species. 



A new periodical has been recently started in London, called "The 

 Quarterly Journal of Pare and Applied Mathematics," and devoted 

 especially to this particular department of science. The title-page 

 bears the names of J. J. Silvester, M. A., F. R. S., late Professor in 

 University College, London, N. M. Ferrers, M. A., Professor Stokes, 

 of Cambridge, F. R. S., A. Cayley, M. A., F. R. S., and M. Hermite, 

 corresponding editor in Paris, an editorial staff affording sufficient 

 guaranty for the manner in which the work will be conducted. 



During the past year, Prof. Agassiz has announced the publication 

 of a great work, entitled " Contributions to the Natural History of 

 America," to be embraced in ten quarto volumes of about 300 pages, 

 illustrated b} T twenty plates. The work will be the result of extended 



