ON THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. XV 



others is only excelled by some of the celebrated museums of Europe. 

 Williams College has been so fortunate as to procure the celebrated min- 

 eralogical and geological cabinet of Dr. Emmons, numbering several 

 thousand specimens : this addition makes the cabinet of this institution 

 more nearly equal the collections at New Haven and Amherst, the largest 

 in the country. Valuable additions have been made to the State Cabinet 

 of New York, of fossils, by gift from Prof. Hall, and an extensive collec- 

 tion of Indian relics and curiosities, by purchase. The latter are described 

 in the Report of the Regents of the University of New York. 



Gov. Hunt, in his message to the Legislature of New York, advocates 

 " the creation of an institution for the advancement of agricultural science 

 and of knowledge in the mechanic arts." A movement in favor of an Ag- 

 ricultural College has also been made in the Legislature of Massachusetts, 

 and in several of the other States, especially in Ohio, where Prof. Mather 

 is at the head of the enterprise, and in Maryland, where a valuable report 

 has been published by Dr. Higgins. 



A movement has been made towards establishing an extensive zoologi- 

 cal and botanical garden in the vicinity of New York. It is proposed to 

 have an incorporated company with a capital of S 300,000, of which sum 

 6 100.000 are to be devoted to the purchase and preparing of about 200 

 acres of land, and to procuring animals and plants, while the remainder is 

 to be invested. 



Prof. C. C. Jewett developed to the American Association a plan for 

 stereotyping the catalogues of libraries. It consists in stereotyping the 

 titles of the books separately, so that they may be transposed in any way, 

 and a title once made will serve for the catalogues of all libraries contain- 

 ing that work. 



Inasmuch as time only can demonstrate the value of any invention in the 

 mechanic arts, it is obviously impossible to speak of the excellence of any 

 particular machine invented during the past year, and we pass them over 

 one and all. The greatest achievement of modern engineering art, the 

 Britannia Bridge, has been brought to a successful completion, and has 

 been in daily use for some months past. The report on the application of 

 iron to railway structures made by commissioners appointed by the British 

 government, after a long series of experiments, is of great importance, 

 detailing, as it does, many new and unexpected facts. Should experi- 

 ments now in progress demonstrate the success of the alleged improve- 

 ment in the preparation of flax, its influence, especially upon this country, 

 can hardly be overrated. Since the close of the year a printing-press 

 capable of producing 20,000 impressions per hour has been put in opera- 

 tion in New York. 



In Natural Philosophy researches have been more than usually numerous 

 and interesting. Prof. Page's investigations upon the application of electro- 

 magnetism as a motive power, are important, but very much remains to 



