10 NOTES BY THE EDITOR 



ally as a means of enlarging and correcting our geographical knowledge, 

 gives it most truly the character proper for a national enterprise. 



The Association approved of the plan presented by Lieut. Hunt, and a 

 committee of five was appointed to prepare a plan for the organization of 

 the Department, and to memorialize Congress on the subject. 



An Academy of Natural Sciences has been formed at San Francisco, 

 California, and regular meetings holden. An address has been published, 

 setting forth the objects of the society, and an addendum giving directions 

 for preparations of specimens to be donated to the institution. This society, 

 if properly maintained, cannot but be of great assistance in giving to 

 the world a knowledge of the natural history an^. resources of California. 

 The field of the State is new, almost untrodden by the naturalist. 



A University for Australia has been founded and endowed by the Legis- 

 lature of Sidney. " This step," says the London Athenreum, " is one of 

 great public interest, not only so far as every extension of the machinery 

 of education is of interest, but also as a preliminary step towards the 

 educational independence of the colonies settled by the English across the 

 line." 



By the recent death of M. Jassieu, the Botanist, M. Combes, Vice-Pres- 

 ident of the Paris Academy of Sciences, has succeeded to the Presidency 

 of that body, and M. Roux, the eminent surgeon of the Hotel Dieu, has 

 been elected Vice-President. 



For the purpose of placing on a more permanent foundation the Profes- 

 sorship of Morbid Anatomy, in Harvard College, Dr. George C. Shattuck, 

 of Boston, has given the sum of fourteen thousand dollars ; in consequence 

 of \vhicli, the professorship is to be hereafter distinguished by the name of 

 the donor. 



A prize of five thousand rupees, offered by the Agricultural Society of 

 India, some years since, for the best cotton-gin, has, by the decision of a 

 committee, been awarded to Messrs. Bates, Hyde, & Co., and Messrs. 

 Carver & Co, of Massachusetts. The machines were adjudged to be of equal 

 excellence, and the amount divided between the respective parties. Gold 

 medals were in addition presented to each firm, and the machines purchased 

 at the price of construction. 



Under the direction and through the assistance of the Government, 

 Schools of " Art and Design" have been established or projected during 

 the past year in various parts of Great Britain. In a circular recently is- 

 sued, the object of these institutions is clearly set forth, as follows : " It is 

 now the object of Government to make those national Institutions, the 

 Schools of Art, useful to all classes of the community, and therefore, whilst 

 the existing provision for the education of the working classes in a know- 

 ledge of Art is to be maintained, new arrangements have been made to pro- 



