X NOTES BY THE EDITOR 



semination of their discoveries. Each observer, says the editor, has 

 but to write to him, and in ten da} T s his discovery will be in print, and 

 in the hands of every entomologist in the kingdom. Mr. Stainton's 

 penny journal, which marks a step in entomological science highly 

 characteristic of the times, is deserving of the warmest encourage- 

 ment. 



One of the most valuable of recent publications is Schubarth's 

 Eepertorium, or a " Subject Matter Index of Patents, with Published 

 Inventions of all Nations, from 1823 to 1853, inclusive." Mr. Schubarth 

 is one of the Prussian Commissioners of Patents, and the work in ques- 

 tion is the result of thirty years' labor. 



Schubarth's Kepertorium has been ordered to be printed in Prussia 

 at the public expense, by the Minister of Commerce. It embraces a 

 period of thirty-one years, from 1823 to 1853, inclusive. It is intended 

 to publish a Supplementary Index in 1859. 



It is an advantageous circumstance that this Index, although written 

 in the German language, is printed in English type, by which it is 

 made intelligible to any European who may wish to consult it ; but in 

 order to render the Eepertorium perfectly available to the general 

 public of England and America, an English translation and a new 

 alphabetical arrangement of its 644 general heads has recently been 

 made. This Mr. Bennet "Woodcroft, Superintendent of English Pa- 

 tents, has done, adding at the same time, in parallel columns, to each 

 of Mr. Schubarth's heads, the corresponding references to the subject 

 matter Indexes of British Patents. 



Schubarth's Eepertorium, in conjunction with Mr. B. Woodcroft's 

 Indexes of British Patents, affords to intending patentees, or their 

 agents, a facility of reference and consultation which leaves little doubt 

 that the great desideratum of placing the entire mass of the industrial 

 information of the world within the reach of every mechanic will 

 ultimately be attained. At least, two very important preliminary steps 

 towards this end have been taken simultaneously, yet independently, 

 by the two gentlemen already named. 



The Geographical Society at Paris, in its first Annual Meeting for 1856, 

 awarded its prize, for the most important discovery during the last 

 year, to Dr. Heinrich Barth. The next prize, of a golden medal, was 

 adjudged to Mr. E. Georgj3 Squier, of the United States, for his Central 

 American Eesearches. 



The Founders' Gold Medal of the Eoyal Geographical Society, Eng- 

 land, has been awarded to Dr. Kane for his discoveries in the Polar 

 Eegions. 



The International Association for the Uniformity of Weights, Mea- 

 sures, and Money, which recently assembled at Paris, is slowly but 

 surely effecting its objects, and achieving results which will hereafter 



